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History  Of 


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HISTORY  OF 
THE   CHURCH   OF  ENGLAND 


I 


2;e;rf;Q0ooft6  of  (j^eftgtouB  ^^Bttuction 


HISTORY 

OF  THE 

CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


BY  THE 

REV.  EDWARD  L.  CUTTS,  D.D. 

EDITOR  OF  THE  SERIES 
AUTHOR  OF  "turning  POINTS  OF  ENGLISH  CHURCH  HISTORY," 
ETC.  ETC. 


NEW  YORK 
LONGMANS,   GREEN,   AND  CO. 
AND  LONDON 
l89S 

AU  rights  reserved. 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  I'AGE 

I.  THE  PRELIMINARY  HISTORY   I 

II.  THE  PLANTING  OF  THE  CHURCH  IN  BRITANNIA        .  5 

III.  THE  TEUTONIC  INVASION   l6 

IV.  THE  ENGLISH  CONVERSION   21 

V.  THE  ITALIAN  MISSION   IN  NORTHUIMBRIA  .         .         .  3I 

VI.  THE  CELTIC  MISSION   37 

VII.  THE    HEPTARCHIC    CHURCHES     UNITED    INTO  THE 

CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND   49 

VIII.  FROM    THE    DANISH     INVASIONS    TO    THE  NORMAN 

CONQUEST  ...  .  .  60 
IX.  THE   ESTABLISHMENT    OF   PAPAL    SUPREMACY  OVER 

THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH   72 

X.  THE   CONFLICT   OF  JURISDICTIONS— THE  CONSTITU- 
TIONS OF  CLARENDON   88 

XL  THE  PAPAL  SUPREMACY   98 

XII.  THE  REACTION  AGAINST  ROME   II3 

XIII.  THE  LOLLARDS     .   II7 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PACE 

XIV.  THE  REFORMING  COUNCILS   122 

XV.  A  SUMMARY  OF  THE  MEDI/EVAL  PERIOD         .  I2S 

XVI.  THE  REFORMATION   137 

XVII.  THE  REFORMATION — ITS  OSCILLATIONS   .         .         .  159 

XVIII.  THE  SETTLEMEN  r  OF  THE  REFORMATION        .         .  164 

XIX.  THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS     .         .         .         .  180 

XX.  THE  RESTORATION   I9O 

XXI.  THE  REVOLUTION   195 

XXII.  THE  HANOVERIAN  PERIOD   207 

XXIII.  THE  MODERN  PERIOD   215 

INDEX   223 


HISTORY  OF 
THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  PRELIMINARY  HISTORY 

The  Church  of  England  is  a  portion  of  that  Corporate 
Organisation  of  Christianity  which  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  founded,  which  His  Apostles  built  up,  which  was 
gradually  extended  by  them  and  their  successors  from 
city  to  city  and  from  land  to  land,  and  which  has  lived 
in  unbroken  continuity  to  the  present  time.  At  what 
time,  by  what  channels,  this  Divine  Organisation  was 
extended  to  this  land,  is  the  subject  of  this  first  chapter. 

Britain  before  the  Roman  Conquest. 

Some  previous  knowledge  of  the  general  history  of 
the  country  is  necessary  to  a  right  appreciation  of  the 
introduction  of  this  new  element  into  its  life. 

About  330  B.C.  one  Pytheas  was  sent  by  the  merchants 
of  the  Greek  colony  at  Marseilles  to  explore  northern 
Europe  in  the  interests  of  their  commerce.  He  paid 
two  visits  to  the  island,  probably  to  the  south-eastern 
part  of  it,  and  reported  that  the  people  had  plenty  of 
corn,  which  they  threshed  in  barns,  and  made  bread 


2      HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


and  ale.  Three  centuries  later  another  Greek,  Posidonius 
(with  whom  Cicero  studied  at  Rhodes),  extended  his 
travels  to  the  island,  probably  visiting  its  south-western 
peninsula,  since  he  describes  the  way  in  which  the 
people  worked  their  tin.  It  is  supposed  to  be  on  his 
authority  that  Diodorus  Siculus  states  that  the  Britons 
grew  corn,  cutting  off  the  ears  and  storing  them  in 
underground  receptacles,  whence  they  were  fetched  daily 
and  dressed  for  consumption,  and  that  they  lived  in 
mean  dwellings  made  of  reeds  and  wood.  Numismatists 
have  collected,  mostly  in  the  southern  parts  of  England, 
specimens  of  a  native  coinage  in  both  gold  and  silver, 
which  extends  back  to  a  century  and  a  half  or  two 
centuries  before  the  Christian  era ;  it  is  copied  from  the 
Gallic  coinage,  which  in  its  turn  was  copied  from  the 
Stater  of  Philip  of  Macedon. 

Julius  Caesar,  after  his  conquest  of  Gaul,  contemplated 
the  extension  of  Roman  dominion  to  this  island.  In 
the  autumn  of  55  B.C.  he  made  a  recognisance  in  force, 
which  was  followed  in  the  next  summer  by  a  more 
serious  invasion.  He  won  several  battles  and  reduced 
his  opponents  to  sue  for  peace  and  to  promise  tribute ; 
but  he  probably  found  the  resistance  more  obstinate 
than  he  had  anticipated,  and  concluded  that  the  ac- 
quisition of  the  island  was  not  worth  what  it  would  cost 
in  men,  money,  and  time;  before  winter  he  withdrew  from 
the  island,  and  made  no  further  attempt  at  its  conquest. 

At  this  time  the  great  majority  of  the  inliabitants 
were  Celts  of  two  families  of  the  race,  Gaels  and  Britons, 
one  represented  to  us  by  the  modern  Highlanders,  the 
other  by  the  Welsh ;  there  may  have  been  some  remnants 
of  an  earlier  Iberian  race  surviving  here  and  there 
among  the  Gaels.  Later  immigrants'  of  Belgic  race 
occupied  the  south-east  of  the  country,  who  were  in 


THE  PRELIMINARY  HISTORY  3 


the  condition  of  civilisation  indicated  by  extensive 
corn-lands,  mechanical  arts  (war-chariots),  roads,  and  a 
coinage. 

Of  the  Religion  of  the  Britons  much  has  been  con- 
jectured by  modern  antiquaries,  but  little  is  certainly 
known.  They  had  deities  whom  Caesar,  after  the 
manner  of  his  age,  identifies  with  certain  of  the  Roman 
deities,  an  extensive  nature-worship,  and  numerous 
superstitions.  They  practised  human  sacrifice.  An 
order  of  Druids  served  both  as  ministers  of  religion  and 
judges,  and  were  regarded  with  great  veneration.  It  is 
from  Pliny  (Nat.  Hist.  xvi.  95)  that  we  get  the  picturesque 
story  of  their  cultus  of  the  mistletoe. 

After  the  abandonment  of  the  island  by  Julius,  no 
further  attempt  was  made  against  the  independence 
of  Britain  for  the  next  hundred  years.  During  those 
hundred  years  Gaul  was  being  rapidly  and  thoroughly 
Romanised  ;  and  by  means  of  the  social  and  commercial 
intercourse  between  Gaul  and  Britain,  Roman  civilisation 
was  being  introduced  into  this  island. 

Britannia. 

In  the  year  43  a.d.  Claudius  undertook  the  conquest 
of  Britain.  A  great  battle  at  Camulodunum  (Colchester), 
at  which  the  Emperor  was  present  in  person,  gave  him 
possession  of  the  south-eastern  portion  of  the  island, 
several  of  the  native  kings  submitting  and  being  con- 
tinued in  their  princedoms.  The  conquest  was  gradu- 
ally extended  by  the  imperial  generals  westward  and 
northward,  until  by  the  year  84  a.d.  the  whole  of  the 
island  as  far  as  the  line  between  the  Firth  of  Forth 
and  the  Firth  of  Clyde  had  been  subdued ;  here  the 
Roman  advance  was  arrested,  and  the  north  of  the 
island  retained  its  independence.   The  Romans  pursued 


4     HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


their  habitual  policy  in  proceeding  at  once  to  Romanise 
their  new  conquest.  They  made  roads,  built  numerous 
cities,  cultivated  the  lands,  and  encouraged  commerce. 
The  better  classes  of  the  native  inhabitants  adopted  the 
Roman  language  and  manners.  It  was  perhaps  the 
most  remote  and  rude  of  the  provinces,  but  for  nearly 
400  years  Southern  Britain  was  an  integral  part  of  the 
Roman  Empire. 


CHAPTER  11 


THE  PLANTING  OF  THE  CHURCH  IN 
BRITANNIA 

The  inquiry,  when  was  the  Church  planted  in  this 
country?  introduces  us  first  to  a  number  of  legendary 
stories,  which,  though  rejected  as  unhistorical,  should 
be  known  by  the  student,  since  they  enter  into  the 
national  literature. 

The  Glastonbury  Legend  is  that  Joseph  of  Arimathea, 
accompanied  by  Lazarus  and  his  sisters  Martha  and 
Mary  and  others,  soon  after  our  Lord's  Ascension  left 
the  Holy  Land,  and  after  a  stay  in  Gaul  came  to 
Britain,  bringing  with  him  the  Holy  Grail ;  i  that  he 
preached  in  the  Isle  of  Avalon,  and  confirmed  the 
truth  of  his  teaching  by  a  miracle — he  struck  his  staff 
of  thorn  into  the  ground,  which  at  once  burst  into  leaf 
and  blossom,  like  Aaron's  rod,  and  took  root  and  grew 
into  a  tree ;  and  that  on  the  spot  he  founded  the  church 
of  Glastonbury.  A  remarkable  fact  has  kept  the  story 
alive  in  the  memories,  if  not  in  the  belief,  of  many 
people  to  this  day.  It  is  said  that  it  was  at  Christmas 
time  that  the  miraculous  thorn  blossomed;  and  there 
are  still  thorn-trees  at  Glastonbury,  and  others  scattered 
about  the  country,  said  to  be  its  offshoots,  which  do  bear 
leaves,  and  sometimes  buds  if  not  blossoms,  at  Christraas- 

'  The  vessel  in  wliich  our  Lord  consecrated  the  Eucharist. 


6     HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


time.  Glastonbury  is  undoubtedly  a  British  foundation, 
which  lived  through  the  West  Saxon  conquest,  and 
the  story  is  no  doubt  founded  on  British  legends;  but 
William  of  Malmesbury  is  the  earliest  (about  a.d.  1135) 
written  authority  for  it,  and  the  historian  pronounces  it 
to  be  purely  mythical. 

The  Legend  of  Bran  the  Blessed.— The  Welsh  Triads 
(collected  in  the  thirteenth  century,  but  conveying  the 
traditions  of  an  earlier  time)  assert  that  Braji,  the  father 
of  Caractacus,  having  been  detained  by  Claudius  for 
seven  years  in  Rome  as  a  hostage  for  his  son,  was  there 
with  some  companions  converted  by  St.  Paul,  and  on 
his  release  carried  the  faith  back  to  Britain  and  planted 
the  Church  here.  The  fact  that  St.  Paul's  first  im- 
prisonment in  Rome  coincides  with  the  last  two  years 
of  the  residence  there  of  the  father  of  Caractacus  gives 
a  certain  plausibility  to  the  story ;  but  it  cannot  be  ac- 
cepted as  historical ;  it  rests  solely  on  the  testimony  of 
the  Welsh  legend,  and  is  inconsistent  with  the  narratives 
of  the  historians  Tacitus  and  Dio  Cassius. 

There  seems  at  first  sight  more  solid  foundation  for 
the  statement  that  Lucius,  king  of  the  Britons,  having 
heard  of  Christianity,  sent  an  embassy  to  Eleutherius, 
Bishop  of  Rome,  asking  to  have  the  Gospel  sent  to  him, 
and  that  his  ambassadors,  having  been  instructed  and 
ordained,  returned  and  founded  the  Church  in  Wales. 
The  Catalogus  Pontificum  Romanorum  contains  an  entry 
under  the  name  of  Eleutherius,  that  in  his  time  (177-190 
A.D.)  "  Lucius,  king  of  Britain,  was  converted ; "  the 
Book  of  Llandaff  gives  the  names  of  Lucius's  ambas- 
sadors and  claims  them  as  the  founders  of  the  Welsh 
Sees.  But  when  we  examine  the  story,  we  find  that  the 
notice  in  the  Caialogus  is  one  of  many  additional  notes 
which  were  interpolated  into  it  in  the  year  530  a.d. 


PLANTING  OF  CHURCH  IN  BRITANNIA  7 


The  Book  of  Llandaff  is  a  compilation  of  the  twelfth 
century,  though  much  of  its  legendary  matter  is  of 
earlier  date.  Gildas  (sixth  century),  the  great  authority 
for  the  history  of  the  British  Church,  makes  no  mention 
of  Lucius.  Bede  accepted  the  note  in  the  Catalogue  of 
Pontiffs  and  introduced  it  into  his  "  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory." Nennius  in  the  ninth  century  expanded  it  into 
the  conversion  of  the  whole  of  Britain.  Between  that 
time  and  the  twelfth  century  it  came  to  be  connected 
with  North  Wales.  The  whole  story  rests  upon  the 
note  interpolated  300  years  after  the  supposed  event  in 
the  Catalogue  of  Roman  Pontiffs,  and  cannot  be  accepted 
as  historical. 

If  some  controversialists  have  reason  for  encouraging 
the  belief  that  the  Church  of  Britain  is  an  offshoot  of 
the  Church  of  Rome,  their  opponents  have  equal  motive 
for  trying  to  show  that  the  island  owes  its  Christianity  to 
St.  Paul. 

During  St.  Paul's  first  imprisonment  at  Rome,  they 
point  out,  the  apostle  expressed  an  intention  of  travelling 
into  Spain.i  There  are  five  years  after  his  liberation 
during  which  we  have  no  history  of  his  labours ;  and 
during  that  time  he  may  very  possibly  have  visited  the 
West,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  did.  The  notices 
of  early  writers  are  tantalisingly  vague.  St.  Clement  of 
Rome  says  that  the  apostle  extended  his  labours  to  the 
"  utmost  bounds  of  the  west ; "  this  is  a  phrase  which, 
in  writers  of  the  time,  often  included  Britain,  but  it 
does  not  necessarily  do  so,  and  St.  Clement's  statement 
would  be  true  if  St.  Paul  had  done  no  more  than  fulfil 
his  intention  of  travelling  into  Spain.  Other  vague  ex- 
pressions of  a  similar  inconclusive  kind  occur.  Eusebius 

'  Romans  xv.  28. 


8     HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


(325  A.D.),  after  speaking  of  the  spreading  of  the  Gos- 
pel among  the  Romans,  Persians,  Armenians,  Parthians, 
Indians,  and  Scythians,  adds :  "  Some  passed  over  the 
ocean  to  those  which  are  called  the  British  Isles ; "  but 
this  statement  is  a  summary  of  the  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity in  early  times  which  would  be  quite  consistent 
with  its  introduction  into  Britain  a  century  or  so  before 
the  time  of  writing ;  in  fact,  Armenia,  which  is  in- 
cluded in  the  summary,  was  not  converted  till  the  end 
of  the  third  century.  Venantius  Fortunatus  (560  a.d.) 
and  Sophronius,  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem  (560  A.D.),  are 
usually  quoted  as  the  first  who  expressly  state  that  St. 
Paul  visited  Britain  in  person ;  but  what  Fortunatus  says 
is  only  that  the  teaching  of  St.  Paul  (s/ylus  ilk)  spread 
to  Britain  and  Ultima  Thule ;  and  though  Sophronius  is 
quoted  by  the  Magdeburg  centuriators  as  bringing  St 
Paul  to  Britain,  there  is  nothing  to  that  effect  in  the 
printed  fragments  of  his  writings,  and  if  there  were,  his 
authority  would  be  of  no  value.  There  are  no  traces 
in  our  ancient  ecclesiastical  history,  legends,  or  antiquities 
of  any  special  veneration  fox  St.  Paul.  On  the  whole, 
there  is  absolutely  no  authority  whatever  for  the  theory 
that  St.  Paul  visited  Britain. 

Having  got  these  legends  out  of  the  way,  the  next 
step  is  to  look  for  trustworthy  evidence  cf  the  first 
planting  of  the  Church  in  this  country.  The  only 
regular  intercourse  between  Britain  and  the  rest  of  the 
world  at  this  period  was  through  Gaul ;  and  it  is  likely 
that  the  Church,  in  passing  from  country  to  country, 
would  come  to  Britain  through  Gaul. 

The  Church  was  not  planted  in  Gaul  till  the  middle 
of  the  second  century.  Its  existence  at  that  date  at 
Vienne  and  Lugdunum  (Lyons)  is  known  to  us  through 
a  letter  which  the  Church  of  Lyons  addressed  to  the 


PLANTING  OF  CHURCH  IN  BRITANNIA 


9 


Churches  of  Asia  and  Phrygia,  giving  a  detailed  account 
of  a  persecution  which  it  had  lately  suffered.  Vienna 
was  an  ancient  Roman  colony,  Lugdunum  was  a  more 
recent  town,  founded  by  merchants  from  Asia  Minor  as 
an  emporium  of  commerce  at  the  junction  of  the  great 
rivers  Saone  and  Rhone.  It  looks  as  if  these  Asian 
merchants,  being  Christians,  had  requested  that  a  church 
should  be  founded  among  them ;  the  whole  narrative 
shows  that  it  had  only  recently  been  planted  ;  Pothinus 
was  its  first  bishop,  Irenseus,  the  pupil  of  St.  Polycarp, 
the  pupil  of  the  apostle  St.  John,  was  its  priest,  and 
Sanctus  its  deacon. 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  any  missionaries 
had  previously  passed  through  Gaul,  without  leaving  any 
trace  of  their  passage,  to  found  the  Church  in  Britain. 
It  has  been  suggested  that  some  fugitives  from  the  per- 
secution at  Lyons  may  have  fled  to  Britain,  but  the 
whole  narrative  makes  it  highly  improbable.  Seme 
other  churches  were  founded  in  Central  Gaul  soon  after- 
wards, but  none  farther  north  than  Lyons. 

About  a  century  later,  a  fiesh  outburst  of  missionary 
zeal  led  to  the  planting  of  some  churches  in  Northern 
Gaul ;  and  it  is  possible  that  the  unexhausted  force  of 
this  wave  of  progress  crossed  the  Channel  and  planted 
the  Church  in  Britain.  On  a  general  survey  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  world  at  the  period,  and  of  the  way  in 
which  the  Church  was  propagated  in  these  western 
countries,  it  is  most  likely  that  the  Church  came  to 
Britain  by  way  of  Gaul,  very  unlikely  that  it  should  be 
planted  here  before  it  was  planted  in  Northern  Gaul,  and 
probable  that  it  was  actually  planted  here  about  the  middle 
of  the  third  century,  as  a  result  of  the  missionary  move- 
ment in  Northern  Gaul  at  that  date  ;  this  would  give  time 
for  an  extension  in  harmony  with  the  subsequent  history. 


lo   HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


We  have  the  testimony  of  the  contemporary  historians, 
Eusebius  and  Lactantius,  for  the  fact  that  there  were 
Christians  and  Christian  temples  in  Britain  at  the  time 
of  the  Diocletian  persecution  (303  a.d.),  and  that  some 
of  the  officers  of  the  Caesar  Constantius  were  Christians. 
Bede  records  the  tradition  of  martyrdoms  at  Verulam, 
Chester,  and  several  other  places,  although  Constantius 
disliked  and  discountenanced  the  persecution. 

When  Constantine  caused  a  Council  of  the  Western 
Churches  to  be  assembled  at  Aries  in  the  year  314  a.d., 
there  were  present  three  British  bishops,  attended  by 
a  priest  and  deacon.  The  bishops  were  Eborius  of 
York,  Restitutus  of  London,  and  Adelfius  of  (probably) 
Caerleon.  These  were  the  principal  cities  of  the  dis- 
tricts into  which  the  province  of  Britain  was  then  sub- 
divided, so  that  these  bishops  may  have  been  the  chiefs 
and  representatives  of  a  more  numerous  episcopate 
spread  over  the  province.  The  fact  is  evidence  that 
the  Church  was  established  in  Britain  as  far  north  as 
York  and  as  far  west  as  Caerleon ;  that  it  had  a 
Diocesan  Episcopate,  and  the  three  orders  of  the 
clergy ;  that  it  was  in  full  communion  with  the  other 
churches  of  the  Empire ;  and  of  sufficient  importance 
to  be  summoned  to  a  General  Council. 

Of  the  history  of  the  Church  in  the  province  of 
Britannia  we  have  only  a  few  isolated  incidents.  The 
first  of  these  is  the  martyrdom  of  Alban  in  the  first 
year  of  the  Diocletian  persecution  (303  A.D.).  Alban  was 
a  citizen  of  Verulam  and  a  heathen  ;  but  his  kindness 
of  disposition  led  him  to  give  shelter  to  a  priest  whose 
life  was  sought ;  and  from  hearing  the  conversation  and 
seeing  the  devotion  of  his  guest  Alban  became  a  Chris- 
tiaa  When  the  persecutors  at  length  discovered  the 
priest's  place  of  refuge  and  came  to  seize  him,  Alban 


PLANTING  OF  CHURCH  IN  BRITANNIA  ii 


put  on  the  priest's  dress,  and  allowed  himself  to  be 
taken  in  his  stead.  When  brought  before  the  magis- 
trate and  commanded  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods,  Alban 
refused,  declared  himself  a  Christian,  and  was  ordered 
to  execution.  The  place  of  execution  was  a  little  hill 
outside  the  city,  divided  from  it  by  a  river.  The  in- 
habitants flocked  out  in  such  numbers  to  witness  the 
martyrdom  that  the  bridge  over  the  river  was  blocked 
by  the  crowd ;  whereupon  Alban,  impatient  for  the 
crown  of  martyrdom,  walked  to  the  river  bank,  and — 
so  says  the  ancient  legend — the  waters  opened  like  those 
of  Jordan  before  Elijah  and  Elisha,  and  made  a  dry  road 
for  the  party  to  pass  over.  The  executioner,  seeing 
this,  threw  down  his  sword,  and  declared  himself  a 
convert  to  the  Christian  faith.  Arrived  at  the  summit  of 
the  hill,  one  of  the  soldiers  struck  off  the  victim's  head, 
and  the  converted  executioner  shared  his  fate.  When 
the  Church  made  peace  under  Constantine,  the  faithful 
of  Verulam  hastened  to  do  honour  to  their  martyr  by 
erecting  a  church  on  the  site  of  the  martyrdom.  The 
local  features  of  the  story  are  little  changed.  The 
ruined  Roman  walls  of  Verulam  may  still  be  traced  on 
the  side  of  a  hill,  which  slopes  down  to  a  little  rivulet. 
On  the  summit  of  the  opposite  slope  is  the  Abbey 
Church  of  St.  Alban  ;  it  is  partly  built  of  Roman  bricks 
from  the  neighbouring  ruin,  it  incorporates  moulded 
balusters  of  Saxon  date ;  it  is  of  all  subsequent  dates  and 
styles  of  architecture  from  Norman  to  Victorian  ;  and  is 
the  most  ancient  monument  of  our  native  Christianity. 

It  has  already  been  noted  that  British  bishops  took 
part  in  the  Council  of  Aries  (314  a.d.).  At  the  great 
Council  of  Nicaea  (325  a.d.)  there  were  few  represen- 
tatives of  the  churches  of  the  West,  and  no  record 
of  any  of  the  British  province ;  but  the  decisions  of 


12    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


the  Council  were  accepted  here.  'I  here  were  British 
bishops  at  the  Council  of  Sardica  (347  a.d.).  British 
bishops  were  present  at  the  Council  of  Rimini  (359 
A.D.),  and  there  is  this  special  information  about  them: 
the  Emperor  had  ordered  that  all  the  expenses  of  the 
bishops  attending  the  Council  should  be  paid  out  of  the 
imperial  funds ;  but  Sulpicius  Severus  says  "  three  only 
of  those  from  Britain,  on  account  of  poverty,  made  use 
of  the  public  gift,  rejecting  the  contributions  offered  by 
the  other  bishops  (because  they  thought  it  more  proper 
to  burden  the  treasury  than  individuals)."  This  seems 
to  indicate  that  some  of  the  British  bishops  were  excep- 
lionally  poor,  and  therefore  the  bis'iops  of  poor  churches. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  fifth  century,  the  Romans 
abandoned  Britain.  It  had  long  been  a  source  of  trouble 
and  weakness  to  the  Imperial  Government.  Frequently 
it  had  set  up  rival  Emperors  who  had  harassed  the 
Continent  of  Europe  with  civil  war ;  as  frequently  the 
Government  had  been  obliged  to  send  troops  into  the 
province  to  repel  the  incursions  of  the  Northern  bar- 
barians and  the  invasions  of  the  Saxon  pirates.  In  the 
reign  of  Honoriu?,  the  Imperial  Government,  harassed 
by  the  Barbarian  invasions  of  Italy,  left  the  Gallic  pro- 
vinces very  much  to  their  own  devices,  and  at  length 
resolved  to  lessen  its  responsibilities  by  the  abandonment 
of  the  outlying  British  province.  Accordingly,  in  410 
A.D.,  Honorius  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Cities  of  Brit.iin 
exhorting  them  to  provide  for  their  own  safety ;  and  the 
Imperial  officials  and  troops  were  withdrawn. 

The  history  of  the  period  is  very  obscure,  but  it  may 
be  gathered  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  deserted  province 
organised  a  government  for  themselves  on  the  existing 
lines,  and  that  for  half  a  century  or  thereabout  this 
independent  government  was  able  to  maintain  the  old 


PLANTING  OF  CHURCH  IN  BRITANNIA  13 


Roman  order,  and  to  repel  the  incursions  of  its  foreign 
foes;  but  that  after  a  while  rivalries  among  the  great 
officials  weakened  the  government,  which  ultimately 
broke  down  under  the  Barbarian  invasions. 

In  the  meantime,  between  the  withdrawal  of  the 
imperial  rule  and  the  break-up  of  the  native  govern- 
ment, occurs  a  chapter  of  ecclesiastical  history,  the  best 
authenticated  and  most  clearly  detailed  of  the  whole 
period.  The  narrative  shows  that  while  the  country  was 
harassed  by  incursions  of  the  Northern  Picts  and  the 
Saxons  from  beyond  sea,  of  the  old  predatory  kind,  the 
peace  and  order  of  the  country  were  not  so  much  dis- 
turbed as  to  prevent  religious  questions  from  occupying 
a  prominent  place  in  the  public  mind.  The  heresy  of 
Pelagius  was  troubling  Western  Christendom  at  that 
time.  Pelagius  is  the  Grecised  form  of  Morgan  (sea- 
born), and  it  is  probable  that  its  bearer  was  a  native  either 
of  Britain  or  Armorica.  But  the  heresy  does  not  appear 
to  have  originated  here,  for  Bede  says  that  it  was  brought 
over  into  Britain  by  Agricola,  the  son  of  Severianus,  a 
Pelagian  bishop.  The  heresy  was  a  reaction  against 
exaggerated  notions  of  the  utter  inability  of  man  in  his 
present  condition  to  choose  and  do  the  right.  The 
reaction,  as  is  usual,  went  too  far  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion, and  seemed  to  deny  the  doctrine  that  "  man  was 
very  far  gone  from  original  righteousness,"  and  needed 
the  "grace  of  God  preventing  him  that  he  might  have  a 
good  will "  before  he  could  turn  to  what  was  right.  St. 
Augustine  was  the  great  opponent  of  the  heresy,  and  his 
writings  on  the  subject  of  grace  and  free  will,  which  arose 
out  of  the  controversy,  are  the  principal  source  of  his 
reputation  and  influence  as  a  theologian  in  the  Western 
Church.  The  opinions  of  Pelagius  were  favourably 
received  in  Britain,  and  the  native  bishops,  unable  to 


14    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


deal  with  them  in  controversy,  sought  aid  from  the 
Church  of  Gaul.  A  synod  of  Gallican  prelates  sent  two 
of  their  greatest  men,  Germanus,  Bishop  of  Auxerre,  and 
Lupus,  Bishop  of  Troyes,  who  preached  "not  only  in 
the  churches,  but  in  the  streets  and  fields,  so  that  the 
Catholics  were  everywhere  confirmed  and  those  who  had 
gone  astray  corrected."  At  length  a  public  disputation 
was  held,  to  which  tlie  partisans  of  Pelagius  came,  "con- 
spicuous for  riches,  glittering  in  apparel ; "  but  they  were 
defeated  in  argument,  and  confessed  their  errors  amid  the 
acclamations  of  the  people.  The  Conference  was  probably 
held  at  St.  Alban's  (429  a.d.).  After  it  was  over,  Germanus 
visited  the  church  built  over  the  scene  of  Alban's  martyr- 
dom ;  deposited  in  the  church  some  relics  of  other  saints, 
and  took  away  some  of  the  dust  from  the  martyr's  tomb. 
The  heretical  opinions  having  soon  revived,  Germanus 
again,  fifteen  years  afterwards,  visited  the  island  with 
Severus,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Treves  (Lupus  being  dead), 
and  the  preaching  of  the  two  again  corrected  the  errors, 
"so  that  the  faith  in  those  parts  continued  long  after 
pure  and  untainted."  ^ 

This  intercourse  of  the  British  Church  with  that  of 
Gaul  in  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  is  enough  to 
assure  us  of  its  general  agreement  with  the  Western 
Church,  but  it  had  some  peculiarities  of  more  or  less 
interest  and  importance.  There  are  indications  that,  like 
Gaul  and  Spain,  it  had  a  Liturgy  of  the  Ephesine  family, 
but  differing  in  some  small  particulars  from  the  Gallic 
and  Mosarabic ;  that  it  had  a  Latin  version  of  the  Bible 
founded  on  the  Old  Latin,  and  different  from  the  Vulgate, 
peculiar  to  itself.  It  had  some  little  variations  from  the 
Continental  usage  in  rites  and  ceremonies ;  one  in  the 

*  The  quotations  are  from  Bede,  Eccl.  Hist.  xvii.  and  xxi. 


PLANTING  OF  CHURCH  IN  BRITANNIA  15 


consecration  of  bishops  perhaps  consisted  in  the  anoint- 
ing of  the  hands ;  a  peculiarity  in  baptism,  which  was 
probably  single  instead  of  trine  immersion  ;  a  custom  of 
dedicating  churches  not  in  the  name  of  some  departed 
saint,  but  in  that  of  the  living  founder.  Two  other  peculi- 
arities really  of  less  importance,  but  which  became  points 
of  controversy  afterwards,  were  the  shape  of  the  clerical 
tonsure  and  the  term  of  keeping  Easter.  The  origin  of  the 
tonsure  was  probably  the  desire  to  distinguish  the  clergy 
from  the  laity,  and  perhaps  to  give  them  an  appearance  of 
the  venerableness  of  age.  In  the  usual  Western  tonsure, 
the  top  of  the  head  was  shaven,  leaving  a  sort  of  crown 
of  hair  round  it.  But  the  British  clergy  had  a  tonsure  of 
their  own ;  whence  they  got  it,  and  even  in  what  it  con- 
sisted, is  not  certainly  known.  The  Bishop  of  Edinburgh 
has  recently  suggested  that  the  head  was  shaven  away 
in  front  of  a  line  drawn  across  the  head  from  ear  to  ear, 
but  leaving  a  partial  crown  or  fringe  of  hair  in  front,  so 
that  in  the  front  view  it  looked  like  the  usual  tonsure,  and 
in  the  back  view  no  tonsure  at  all  was  visible.  Their 
mode  of  computing  Easter  was  only  an  adherence  to  a 
cycle  called  by  the  name  of  Sulpicius  Severus,  a  disciple 
of  St.  Martin  of  Tours,  which  had  been  used  by  all  the 
Western  churches,  and  which  the  British  churches  con- 
tinued to  use  after  the  churches  of  the  Continent  had 
adopted  the  more  correct  cycle  of  Victorius  Aquitanus; 
just  as  the  East  now  clings  to  the  "  old  style,"  while  the 
Western  nations  have  adopted  a  reformed  calendar. 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  TEUTONIC  INVASION 

The  Barbarian  tribes  beyond  the  Danube  and  the 
Rhine — Goths,  Burgundians,  Franks — were  falling  upon 
the  decaying  Empire  like  wolves  upon  a  dying  aurochs.^ 

The  Saxons,  Jutes,  and  Angles,  inhabitants  of  the  coast 
about  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe,  were  unable  to  get  at  the 
prey  for  the  Franks,  who  occupied  the  whole  frontier  of 
the  Rhine  from  Strasburg  to  the  sea,  so  they  crossed  the 
sea  in  their  long  ships,  and  fell  upon  the  abandoned 
province  of  Britain,  and  there  found  their  share  of  the 
spoil  of  the  old  world,  and  helped  to  build  up  the  new 
world  of  modern  Europe. 

The  English  conquest  was  not  the  result  of  one 
great  battle,  as  when  Clovis  in  the  battle  of  Soissons 
broke  the  power  of  the  Prefect  Syagrius  and  found 
no  one  left  even  to  attempt  to  rally  the  scattered  forces 
of  Gaul  against  him ;  neither  was  it  the  achievement 
of  one  power  gradually  extending  its  conquest  over 
the  country,  as  in  the  Roman  conquest  of  the  island  : 
it  was  the  work  of  separate  bands  of  adventurers 
acting  independently  of  one  another,  at  different  places 
and  times.  They  landed  on  different  parts  of  the 
eastern  and  southern  coasts  or  rowed  up  the  rivers  into 
the  interior  of  the  country.    The  circumstance  of  the 

'  The  European  bison,  now  almost  extinct. 


THE  TEUTONIC  INVASION  i7 


Barbarian  conquest  of  Britain  differed  greatly  from  those 
of  the  contemporary  conquests  of  Italy,  Spain,  and  Gaul. 
On  the  Continent  of  Europe  the  Barbarian  conquerors 
were  content  with  the  submission  of  the  native  people 
and  settled  down  peacefully  among  them ;  they  allowed 
the  towns  to  capitulate  and  to  continue  their  old  life, 
their  religion,  language,  and  laws,  under  their  old  muni- 
cipal institutions,  like  so  many  Latin  republics,  amidst 
the  Teutonic  sea  which  surrounded  them.  But  Goths, 
Burgundians,  and  Franks  had  long  been  in  contact  with 
Roman  civilisation  and  had  learnt  to  respect  it,  and  the 
two  former  were  Christians  before  they  began  their  wars 
of  conquest;  the  Jutes,  Angles,  and  Saxons,  who  had 
been  shut  out  from  direct  intercourse  with  the  Empire 
by  intervening  tribes,  were  in  a  less  advanced  state  of 
progress,  and  were  too  ignorant  and  barbarous  to  under- 
stand the  value  to  themselves  of  the  civilisation  which 
they  destroyed.  With  two  or  three  probable  exceptions, 
the  towns  of  the  conquered  part  of  the  British  province 
seem  to  have  been  stormed,  sacked,  depopulated,  and 
left  in  ruins.  How  far  the  native  inhabitants  of  the 
country  districts  were  also  massacred  or  driven  before 
the  invaders  is  a  difficult  question  still  under  discussion. 
Mr.  E.  A.  Freeman  held  that  the  Teutonic  conquerors,  at 
least  in  the  earlier  period  of  their  conquests,  permitted 
few  of  the  conquered  race  to  remain  on  the  lands  on 
which  they  settled,  and  then  only  in  the  condition  of 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water.^ 

Circumstances  determined  the  territorial  organisation 

'  As  an  indication  that  a  larger  part  of  the  British  population 
than  is  usually  supposed  remained  in  their  native  seats,  the  Rev.  E. 
M'Clure  (see  S.P.C.K.)  points  out  that  not  only  the  names  of  great 
natural  feature,  as  rivers  and  hills,  retain  their  Celtic  names,  but  that 
in  many  of  the  place  names  to  which  the  terminations  Aam  and  ion 

S.  T.  B 


18    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


of  the  newcomers.  In  some  cases  a  powerful  chief  took 
possession  of  a  great  tract  of  country,  and  allotted 
portions  of  it  among  the  tribe  of  followers  who  had 
assisted  in  its  conquest.  In  others  a  band  of  equal 
adventurers  divided  the  district  which  they  had  seized 
in  shares  among  themselves.  The  several  bands  of 
invaders  pushed  forward  their  conquests  until  they  met. 
Then  the  conquerors  began  to  organise  themselves  into 
kingdoms.  The  chief  under  whose  banner  his  tribe  had 
won  a  portion  of  the  country  was  led  to  assume  the 
authority  and  title  of  king.  When  two  or  three  rival 
chiefs  had  occupied  neighbouring  territory,  war  some- 
times determined  the  supremacy  of  one  of  them.  In 
other  cases  the  colonies  of  free  adventurers  put  them- 
selves under  the  protection  of  the  most  considerable 
chief  of  the  neighbourhood  for  the  sake  of  protection. 

At  the  end  of  this  first  period  of  conquest  the  invaders 
had  won  the  eastern  half  of  the  former  Roman  province, 
and  had  organised  themselves  into  seven  (or  eight) 
independent  kingdoms.  It  will  be  convenient  to  give 
the  results  of  the  English  conquest  in  one  view.  The 
Jutes  {c.  449)  had  established  themselves  in  Kent,  and 
subsequently  possessed  themselves  of  the  Isle  of  Wight 
and  the  nearest  portion  of  the  mainland.  The  setting 
up  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Southern  Saxons  is  ascribed  to 
the  year  477  a.d.  In  495  the  kingdom  of  Wessex  was 
founded  in  what  we  now  call  Hampshire,  and  rapidly 

give  an  English  appearance,  the  former  part  of  the  compound  word 
is  Celtic  ;  that  is,  the  places  retained  their  Celtic  names  ;  and  the 
inference  is  that  some  of  their  Celtic  inhabitants  continued  to  live 
in  them.  For  example,  Lymington  on  the  Lym  ;  Leamington  on 
the  Learn  ;  Tafingstock  (Ta\'istock)  on  the  Taf ;  Ermington  on  the 
Earme  ;  Mycel-defer  (Micheldever) ;  Compton  and  Ashcombe  (from 
comb  =  cwm) ;  Penard,  Pencrik,  Cadbury  ;  Havant  and  Funtamel 
(from  foiu). 


THE  TEUTONIC  INVASION 


enlarged  itself.  Some  lime  in  the  sixth  century  the  king- 
dom of  Essex  was  founded  between  the  Thames  and  the 
Stour,  and  the  kingdom  of  the  East  Angles  between  the 
Stour  and  the  Wash.  An  Anglian  kingdom  (Nortliumbria) 
was  early  founded  on  the  coast  between  the  Humber 
and  the  Forth,  and  slowly  extended  inland.  Other 
Angles  seized  on  the  coast  between  the  Humber  and 
the  Wash  (the  Lindiswara).  Some  late  comers  of  various 
tribes  made  their  way  up  the  Trent  into  the  heart  of  the 
midland  counties,  and  these  at  length  were  united  into 
the  kingdom  of  Mercia,  which  took  in  the  Anglian  settle- 
ments on  the  coast,  the  West  Saxon  conquests  north  of 
the  Thames,  and  most  of  the  regions  covered  by  the 
midland  counties  of  modern  England. 

The  second  meridian  west  from  Greenwich,  which 
passes  from  the  mouth  of  the  Tweed  to  that  of  the 
Hampshire  Avon,  roughly  defines  the  limit  of  the  original 
Anglo-Saxon  conquests.  The  native  inhabitants  of  the 
western  part  of  the  old  province  had  organised  them- 
selves into  three  kingdoms,  Cumbria  or  Strathclyde, 
Wales,  and  West  Wales  or  Damnonia.  In  597  the  king- 
dom of  Strathclyde  or  Cumbria  extended  from  the  Solway 
Firth  to  the  Mersey,  and  eastward  beyond  Leeds  and 
nearly  as  far  as  York  (Elmete  and  Loidis) ;  Wales  had 
the  Severn  for  its  eastern  boundary ;  West  Wales  in- 
cluded Somerset,  and  sent  up  a  tongue  to  Bradford  and 
Malmesbury. 

Besides,  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  conquered  country,  in 
the  forests,  amid  the  marshes,  among  the  hills,  remnants 
of  the  native  population  found  a  refuge,  where  they  main- 
tained themselves  until  they  were  peaceably  absorbed 
into  the  general  population. 

It  will  be  convenient  to  continue  here  the  history 
down  to  the  permanent  territorial  settlement  of  the  two 


20   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


races.  The  conversion  of  the  Teutonic  kingdoms  to 
Christianity  did  not  arrest  the  progress  of  the  forcible 
extension  of  their  territory  at  the  expense  of  the  Celts, 
but  the  war  assumed  a  milder  form  ;  in  the  later  acquisi- 
tions the  lives,  and  to  some  extent  the  property,  of  the 
native  people  were  respected. 

I"  S77>  Ceawlin,  king  of  Wessex,  by  the  great  battle  of 
Deorham,  in  which  three  Welsh  princes  were  slain,  gained 
possession  of  the  cities  of  Bath,  Gloucester,  and  Ciren- 
cester, and  the  country  round  about  them,  and  thus 
cut  off  West  Wales  (Damnonia)  from  the  rest  of  in- 
dependent Britain.  In  613,  ^'Ethelfrith,  kmg  of  Nor- 
thumbria,  by  the  battle  of  Chester  won  the  tract  of 
country  between  the  Dee  and  the  Mersey,  and  inter- 
vened between  Wales  and  Strathclyde.  These  three 
divisions  of  independent  Britain  were  subject  to  further 
encroachment.  Offa,  king  of  the  Mercians  (755-794), 
encroached  upon  Wales  to  a  line  drawn  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Wye  to  the  estuary  of  the  Dee,  along 
which  line  he  constructed  an  earthwork  called  Offa's 
Dyke.  Harassed  by  the  Northumbrian  Angles  and  the 
Picts,  the  Cumbrians  ceased  to  have  kings  of  their  own 
race  in  the  early  part  of  the  tenih  century.  In  the 
south-western  peninsula,  the  South  Saxon  rule  was 
continually  being  pressed  farther  and  farther  west,  till 
the  conquests  of  Athelstan  (925-920)  finally  extinguished 
its  independence. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ENGLISH  CONVERSION 

The  conversion  of  these  new  inhabitants  of  the  eastern 
half  of  the  land  is  the  next  subject  for  consideration, 
and  there  are  reasons  which  will  appear  in  a  later  part 
of  the  history  for  treating  it  with  careful  accuracy  and  in 
some  detail.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  sixth  century,  the 
kingdom  of  Kent,  the  first  settled  of  the  new  Teutonic 
kingdoms,  and  in  most  direct  intercourse  with  the  Con- 
tinent, seems  to  have  been  the  most  powerful  of  the 
Enghsh  kingdoms  and  the  furthest  advanced  in  civi- 
lisation. The  king  had  obtained  a  recognised  autho- 
rity (indicated  by  the  title  Bretwalda)  over  the  other 
kingdoms  south  of  the  Humber.  This  king,  Ethelbert, 
sought  a  wife  from  the  family  of  Clevis,  the  French  con- 
queror of  Gaul,  and  was  allowed  to  carry  away  Bertha, 
a  daughter  of  Charibert,  king  of  Paris  (one  of  the  four 
grandsons  among  whom  the  heritage  of  Clovis  was  now 
divided),  on  condition  that  she  should  be  allowed  to 
retain  her  religion  and  the  means  of  exercising  it. 
Accordingly,  she  was  attended  to  Kent  by  Bishop  Liud- 
hard ;  and  Ethelbert  repaired  and  restored  for  her  use 
one  of  the  deserted  churches  of  the  Britons,  which  still 
remained  standing  at  Canterbury.  The  present  church 
of  St.  Martin  is  probably  on  the  same  site,  and  partly 
built  out  of  the  material  of  the  old  Romano- British 


22    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


church,  since  it  includes  bricks  of  undoubted  Roman 
make.  It  is  obvious  that  this  event  would  probably 
before  long  have  led  to  the  conversion  of  Kent  by  the 
Galilean  Church;  but  in  the  meantime  the  work  was 
undertaken  from  another  quarter,  viz.,  from  Rome. 

The  Roman  Mission. 

Rome  in  the  fifth  century  was  at  the  lowest  ebb  of  its 
fortunes.  On  the  death  of  Gallienus  (268  a.d.),  the 
able  Illyrian  emperors  who  rescued  the  Empire  from 
its  dangers  had  made  the  camp  their  residence,  and 
several  of  them  never  even  visited  the  ancient  capital. 
Diocletian  (284-305  a.d.)  had  permanently  fixed  his 
court  at  Nicomedia,  as  the  most  convenient  centre  of 
affairs,  and  when  he  divided  the  Empire,  had  made 
Milan  the  capital  of  the  West.  Honorius  had  removed 
the  court  to  Ravenna  (404  a.d.).  Though  no  longer 
the  residence  of  the  court  and  the  seat  of  Empire, 
Rome  continued  to  be  a  great  and  wealthy  city.  But 
the  Goths  had  sacked  it  under  Alaric  in  410  a.d., 
and  the  Vandals  under  Genseric  in  455  a.d.,  and  had 
destroyed  or  driven  into  exile  the  great  families,  and 
left  the  city  half  ruined  and  half  depopulated.  The 
Western  Empire  had  ended  with  the  abdication  of 
Augustulus  (475  A.D.).  Theodoric  the  Goth  made 
himself  master  of  Italy  (489  a.d.).  Justinian's  great 
generals  Belisarius  (536  a.d.)  and  Narses  reconquered 
it  and  made  it  an  appanage  of  the  Eastern  Empire. 
Then  came  the  invasion  of  the  Lombards  (568-570). 
At  the  time  at  which  the  history  has  arrived,  Rome 
and  a  small  territory  around  it  was  an  outlying  depen- 
dency of  the  Eastern  Empire,  almost  isolated  amidst 
the  Lombard  conquests,  governed  by  a  Prefect,  whose 


THE  ENGLISH  CONVERSION 


23 


superior  was  the  Exarch  of  Ravenna,  who  was  the  re- 
presentative of  the  Emperor  of  the  East.  The  Emperor 
was  able  to  do  Httle  or  nothing  to  aid  the  city,  and  it 
had  to  depend  chiefly  on  its  own  forces  and  its  own 
diplomacy  for  its  safety  from  the  Lombards.  In  these 
circumstances  it  exercised  a  large  amount  of  self- 
government,  and  bore  uneasily  the  interference  of  its 
distant  master. 

The  Church  of  Rome  had  shared  the  decaying  fortunes 
of  the  city.  Barbarian  kings  and  Byzantine  generals 
had  made  and  unmade  its  bishops ;  Theodoric  had  sent 
one  Pope  to  Constantinople  as  his  ambassador,  Justinian 
had  summoned  another  to  Constantinople  to  give  an 
account  of  himself,  and  both  sovereigns  had  treated 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  with  scanty  consideration.  The 
ecclesiastical  reputation  of  the  See  for  orthodoxy  had 
been  sullied  by  the  vacillations  of  Vigilius,  and  its 
honorary  primacy  of  the  Church  was  challenged  by  the 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  who  argued  that  since  the 
primacy  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  had  been  derived  from 
the  fact  that  Rome  was  the  capital  of  the  Empire,  that 
primacy  now  belonged  to  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople 
by  the  same  title.    Gregory  was  now  its  bishop. 

Gregory  was  said  to  be  descended  from  one  of  the 
greatest  of  the  old  families — the  Anician ;  his  birth,  his 
wealth,  his  ability  had  made  him  one  of  the  most  con- 
siderable persons  in  Rome.  He  had  held  the  office  of 
Prsetor  of  the  city.  Then  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven  he 
had  adopted  the  ascetic  life,  had  turned  the  great  house 
of  his  family  on  the  Cselian  hill  into  a  monastery  dedi- 
cated to  St.  Andrew,  and  had  devoted  his  wealth  to  the 
founding  of  six  other  monasteries  in  Sicily.  His  high 
character  and  great  ability  made  him  as  conspicuous  in 
the  Church  as  he  had  been  in  the  State.    The  bishop 


24   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 


sent  him  to  Constantinople  as  his  official  representative 
at  the  Emperor's  court,  where  he  remained  for  ten 
years.  On  his  return  to  Rome,  the  bishop  made  him 
his  secretary  and  archdeacon ;  and  on  the  death  of  the 
bishop,  six  years  afterwards,  Gregory  was  elected  by  the 
Senate,  clergy,  and  people  to  fill  the  vacant  chair 
(590  A.D.). 

Gregory's  interest  in  the  barbarous  people  who  had 
wrecked  the  abandoned  province  of  Britannia  was  due 
to  what  men  call  an  accident.  One  day  (about  586  or 
587  A.D.),  while  still  archdeacon,  as  he  was  crossing  the 
Forum,  a  group  of  young  people  exposed  for  sale  as 
slaves  attracted  his  attention  by  their  large  stature,  fair 
complexions,  yellow  hair,  and  blue  eyes,  which  formed 
a  striking  contrast  with  the  smaller  stature  and  dark 
complexions  of  the  Italians  around  them.  The  arch- 
deacon stopped  to  make  inquiry  about  them.  He  asked 
of  what  race  they  were?  "Angli."  "  Non  Angli  sed 
Ange/i,"  he  replied.  "And  from  what  country  did  they 
come?"  "Deira."  "Such  a  race  ought  to  be  rescued 
de  ira  Dei.  And  their  king's  name  ?  "  "  ^lla."  "  A/ie- 
luia"  he  exclaimed,  " the  praise  of  God  must  be  sung  in 
those  parts."  The  incident  made  a  great  impression  on 
Gregory's  mind,  and  he  resolved  to  go  as  a  missionary 
to  convert  these  Angles.  But  when  he  had  actually  set 
out  on  his  journey,  a  popular  outcry  arose  against  the 
loss  to  Rome  of  so  important  a  man,  and  the  bishop 
was  induced  to  recall  him. 

Six  years  after  Gregory's  accession  (596  a.d.)  he  took 
up  again  his  old  idea  of  a  mission  to  the  Angles.  He 
laid  his  plans  on  a  great  scale.  For  his  agents  he  looked 
to  his  own  monastery  of  St.  -Andrew,  and  committed  the 
task  to  its  Prior  Augustine  and  a  large  body  of  its  monks  ; 
including  the  clerks,  and  those  who  accompanied  them. 


THE  ENGLISH  CONVERSION  25 


the  mission  party  numbered  nearly  forty  men.  They 
started  from  Rome  probably  in  the  early  part  of  the  year 
596.  Somewhere  in  the  south  of  Gaul,  frightened  by 
what  they  heard  of  the  hardships,  difficulties,  and  dangers 
which  awaited  them,  they  halted,  and  induced  Augustine 
to  return  to  Rome  and  beg  Gregory  to  abandon  the 
undertaking.  Gregory  would  not  hear  of  it.  He  sent 
Augustine  back  with  a  letter  of  encouragement  to  the 
missionaries,  and  with  other  letters  addressed  to  the 
Frank  kings,  commending  his  monks  to  the  royal 
protection,  and  other  letters  to  the  principal  bishops 
along  their  route,  bespeaking  their  good  offices. 

The  mission  party,  when  Augustine  rejoined  them, 
proceeded  northwards  through  Gaul ;  but  the  informa- 
tion which  they  received  in  Gaul  about  the  condition 
of  the  country  to  which  they  were  sent,  and  especially 
that  Christianity  had  already  obtained  a  footing  in  the 
island,  led  them  to  modify  their  plans,  and,  instead  of 
making  Deira  (Yorkshire)  their  goal,  to  take  advantage 
of  the  providential  opening  which  offered  itself  in  Kent. 
Perhaps  Augustine's  return  had  been  partly  in  order  to 
obtain  Gregory's  permission  to  make  this  alteration  in 
his  plans. 

In  the  autumn  of  596  a.d.,  Augustine  landed  at  Ebbes- 
fleet,  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet,  the  usual  port  of  entry,  and 
sent  a  message  to  Ethelbert  announcing  his  arrival  from 
Rome  with  a  message  of  high  and  joyful  import.  The 
king  bade  them  stay  where  they  were,  ordering  that  their 
wants  should  be  provided  for.  After  a  few  days  he  went 
to  the  island,  and  sitting  in  the  open  air  surrounded  by 
his  attendants,  gave  audience  to  the  Italian  strangers. 
They  approached  in  procession  with  a  silver  cross  borne 
before  them,  and  a  picture  of  our  Lord  painted  on  a 
panel  by  way  of  banner,  and  singing  a  litany.  Augustine 


26    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


at  the  king's  desire  sat  down  beside  him,  and  preached 
to  him  the  word  of  life.  The  king  received  them  favour- 
ably, assigned  them  a  residence  in  Canterbury,  pro- 
vided for  their  sustenance,  and  gave  them  liberty  to 
preach  and  to  win  as  many  as  they  could  to  their 
religion.  They  resumed  their  journey,  and  ended  it  by 
entering  the  city  in  procession  with  cross  and  banner, 
singing  their  litany.  Shortly  afterwards  the  king  gave 
them  another  ruined  British  church  in  the  city,  and  a 
settled  residence,  with  such  possessions  of  different  kinds 
as  were  necessary  to  their  subsistence.  Many  of  the 
people  were  converted  and  baptized,  and  before  long 
Ethelbert  himself  embraced  the  faith ;  and  his  conver- 
sion was  followed  by  that  of  still  greater  numbers  of  the 
people.  Having  thus  obtained  a  secure  footing,  Augus- 
tine returned  to  Aries,  where,  by  the  desire  of  Gregory, 
the  Bishop  of  Aries,  the  Metropolitan  of  Southern  Gaul, 
consecrated  Augustine  as  Bishop  of  the  English.  A 
,'^few  years  afterwards  (60 1)  Gregory  sent  to  Augustine  a 
reinforcement  of  able  men — Mellitus,  Justus,  Paulinus, 
and  Rufinianus — with  the  honour  of  the  pall  for  Augustine, 
and  a  supply  of  sacred  vessels  for  the  altars,  ornaments 
for  the  churches,  vestments  for  the  priests  and  clerks, 
relics  of  apostles  and  martyrs,  and  many  books. 
Gregory  directed  that  the  church  of  the  English  should 
be  divided  into  twelve  bishoprics  with  two  centres,  at 
London  and  York,  and  gave  Augustine  jurisdiction  over 
them  all,  and  over  the  British  bishops  also.  These 
plans  of  the  good  bishop,  made  in  ignorance  of  the  local 
conditions,  were  not  carried  out.  Gregory  also  gave 
directions  not  to  desiroy  the  idol  temples  of  the  English, 
but  if  they  were  well  built  to  turn  them  into  churches ; 
but  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  any  such  idol  temples 
existed.    Augustine  established  his  See  in  Canterbury  in 


THE  ENGLISH  CONVERSION  27 


a  church  "which  he  was  informed  had  been  built  by 
the  ancient  Roman  Christians,  and  which  he  consecrated 
as  Christ  Church,  and  there  established  a  residence  for 
himself  and  his  successors.  He  also  founded  a  monas- 
tery outside  the  city,  where  the  king  built  a  church 
dedicated  to  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  but  afterwards  called 
St.  Augustine's.  The  monks  were  placed  in  this  monas- 
tery, but  Augustine  lived  with  his  priests  and  clerks  in 
the  city." 

It  was  probably  in  602  or  603  a.d.  that  Augustine 
took  steps  to  come  to  an  understanding  with  the  ancient 
British  Church.  With  the  assistance  of  King  Ethelbert 
he  arranged  a  meeting  at  a  place  which  Bede  says  was 
known  in  his  time  as  Augustine's  Ac,  i.e.,  Augustine's 
Oak,  and  which  he  describes  as  being  on  the  borders  of 
the  Wicii  and  West  Saxons.  The  locality  is  disputed, 
but  our  best  authorities  place  it  at  Aust,  where  in  Roman 
times  was  the  ordinary  ferry  across  the  Severn.  At  a 
first  interview,  when  the  Britons  persistently  declined  to 
alter  the  customs  of  their  church  at  "the  entreaties,  exhor- 
tations, and  rebukes  of  Augustine  and  his  companions," 
an  attempt  was  ma'ie  to  overawe  them  by  a  miracle.  A 
blind  man  of  the  English  race  was  brought  "  who  found 
no  benefit  or  cure  from  the  ministry  of  the  Britons,"  but 
on  the  prayer  of  Augustine  received  sight.  Still  the 
British  deputies  declared  their  inability  to  yield  without 
the  consent  of  their  people,  and  arranged  for  a  second 
interview  at  which  more  of  their  number  would  be 
present. 

At  the  second  interview,  seven  British  bishops  were 
present,  and  many  very  learned  men,  particularly  from 
their  most  noble  monastery  of  Bangor  Iscoed  (under  the 
wood),  which  was  twelve  miles  from  Chester,  on  the  east 
of  the  Dee.   The  question  turned  on  their  being  willing 


28    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


or  not  to  accept  Augustine  as  their  archbishop ;  and  that 
by  the  advice  of  a  holy  hermit  was  made  to  depend  on 
the  way  in  which  he  should  treat  them  at  this  interview. 
He  received  them  sitting  in  his  chair,  and  did  not  rise  at 
their  approach ;  whereupon  they  declined  to  accept  him 
as  their  archbishop  or  to  make  the  changes  which  he 
desired ;  for,  they  said  among  themselves,  "  if  he  would 
not  rise  up  to  us  now,  how  much  more  will  he  contemn 
us  as  of  no  worth  if  we  shall  put  ourselves  in  subjection 
to  him."  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  two  churches  were 
not  divided  by  any  question  of  principle;  all  that 
Augustine  asked  was  that  the  Britons  would  keep  Easter 
by  the  Roman  computation,  use  the  same  form  of  baptism 
which  Rome  used  (probably  by  trine  immersion),  and 
help  to  convert  the  English.  Augustine  had  no  objec- 
tion to  make  to  their  orders  or  the  like ;  and  did  not 
demand  their  obedience  in  the  name  of  the  divine 
right  of  Rome,  but  as  a  matter  of  expediency  invited  it ; 
he  did  not  excommunicate  them  for  their  refusal.  The 
Britons  for  their  part  had  made  up  their  minds  to  yield 
on  all  the  minor  questions,  and  only  refused  to  accept 
Augustine's  supremacy  from  fear  that  it  would  be 
abused. 

In  604  A.D.  Ethelbert  aided  Augustine  with  his  influ- 
ence as  Bretwalda  to  spread  the  Church  into  the  neigh- 
bouring kingdoms.  A  church  was  built  at  Rochester, 
and  Justus  was  consecrated  its  bishop.  Probably 
Rochester  was  the  chief  city  of  a  semi-independent 
sub-tribe  planted  in  the  north-west  corner  of  the  Kentish 
kingdom.  Its  bishop  was  always  in  a  special  sense  a 
suffragan  of  the  bishops  of  Canterbury,  for  he  was 
nominated  by  them,  and  acted  as  their  cross-bearer. 
At  the  same  time  a  church  was  built  in  London,  the 
principal  city  of  the  East  Saxons.    Sebert,  their  king, 


THE  ENGLISH  CONVERSION  29 


a  nephew  of  Ethelbert,  received  baptism,  and  Mellitus 
was  consecrated  as  their  bishop.  Apparently  at  the 
same  time  Redwaid,  king  of  the  East  Angles,  was 
baptized  at  Canterbury,  and  returned  with  some  mis- 
sionary priest  in  his  train,  but  the  new  religion  was 
opposed  by  his  queen,  and  was  not  well  received  by 
his  people.  Redwaid  himself  was  only  half-hearted,  for 
"in  the  same  temple  he  had  an  altar  to  sacrifice  to 
Christ,  and  another  small  one  to  otTer  victims  to  devils." 
Augustine  died  605,  and  was  succeeded  by  Laurentius. 

Ethelbert  died  in  616  a.d.,  and  Sebert  shordy  after- 
wards. It  is  an  evidence  of  the  personal  greatness  of 
Ethelbert  that  his  death  was  followed  by  a  crisis  both 
in  Church  and  State.  The  authority  of  Bretwalda  passed 
to  the  king  of  East  Anglia.  His  son  and  successor, 
Eadbald,  married  his  widowed  stepmother,  and  perhaps 
this  was  the  cause  of  his  rejection  of  Christianity  and 
his  quarrel  with  Laurentius.  The  men  of  Rochester 
drove  their  bishop  out  of  the  city;  the  sons  of 
Sebert,  it  now  appears,  had  never  been  baptized,  and 
freed  from  their  father's  authority  and  that  of  Ethel- 
bert, they  openly  reverted  to  paganism.  Mellitus  fled 
to  Canterbury,  and  thence  he  and  Justus  fled  to  Gaul, 
and  Laurentius  was  about  to  follow,  when  Eadbald  re- 
pented, and  the  fugitive  bishops  were  recalled.  Justus 
resumed  his  place  at  Rochester,  but  the  Londoners 
would  not  receive  Mellitus  again.  Perhaps  the  loss  of 
the  authority  of  Bretwalda  by  the  kings  of  Kent  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  the  fact  that  the  successors  of  Augus- 
tine— Laurentius,  Justus,  Honorius,  Deusdedit — do  not 
seem  to  have  taken  any  action  beyond  their  own  diocese. 
They  accepted  the  position  of  bishops  of  Kent,  and 
the  claim  to  be  archbishops  of  the  English  fell  into 
obscurity. 


30   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 

The  work  of  evangelisation  in  Kent  was  done  chiefly 
on  monastic  lines.  The  great  monastery  of  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul,  founded  by  Augustine  outside  the  walls  of 
Canterbury,  was  followed  in  6x6  by  the  foundation  of 
the  monastery  of  Dover,  in  630  by  the  double  monastery 
at  Folkestone,  which  King  Eadbald  founded  for  his 
daughter  ^answitha,  who  became  its  first  abbess ;  in 
633  of  the  double  house  of  Lyminge,i  founded  for 
Ethelburga,  the  widowed  queen  of  Edwin  of  Nor- 
thumbria ;  towards  the  close  of  the  century  of  Minster 
in  Sheppy,  the  foundation  of  Sexburga,  the  wife  of  King 
Earcombert,  and  a  little  later  of  Minster  in  Thanet, 
founded  by  Earmenburga,  the  grand-niece  of  Ethelburga. 
The  monastery  at  Reculver  in  669  completed  the  founda- 
tions of  the  descendants  of  Ethelbert.  The  monasteries 
founded  churches  upon  their  estates,  and  did  much  to- 
wards clearing  the  forest  which  covered  the  western 
portion  of  the  kingdom,  and  reclaiming  the  marshes  on 
the  southern  coast. 

At  the  end  of  twenty-eight  years  fiom  the  arrival  of 
Augustine,  the  Church  was  still  limited  to  Kent.  Then 
an  accident,  so  to  call  it,  quite  apart  from  any  action  of 
the  bishop,  led  to  its  further  extension.  Again  it  was  a 
royal  marriage  which  opened  the  way  for  the  introduction 
of  the  Gospel  into  Northumbria. 

'  The  foundations  of  the  church  have  been  excavated  in  the  present 
generation.  It  had  a  western  as  well  as  an  eastern  apse,  like  ihe 
ancient  Christ  Church  of  Canterbury. 


CHAPTER  V 


THE  ITALIAN  MISSION  IN  NORTHUMBRIA 

The  interest  of  the  story  passes  now  from  Kent  to 
Northumbria.  Edwin,  the  ab'e  and  enterprising  king 
of  the  northern  kingdom,  and  the  Bretwalda,  sought 
Ethelburga  of  Kent,  the  daughter  of  Ethelbert  and 
Bertha,  in  marriage.  It  was  arranged,  as  in  the  case  of 
her  mother,  that  the  princess  and  all  who  accompanied 
her  should  have  leave  to  follow  their  faith  and  worship ; 
Paulinus  was  consecrated  bishop,  July  625,  to  go  with 
her  to  her  northern  home.  Edwin  was  induced  to  listen 
to  Paulinus'  preaching,  and  at  length  to  lay  before  a 
Gemote  of  his  thanes  and  counsellors  the  question  of 
abandoning  their  old  heathenism  and  embracing  Chris- 
tianity. Bede's  narrative  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
council  gives  an  interesting  suggestion  of  the  various 
motives  which  influenced  men's  minds  then  in  weighing 
the  claims  of  the  new  religion.  When  the  king  asked 
their  opinion  of  the  new  religion,  Coifi,  the  pagan  high 
priest,  spoke  first.  He  declared  that  the  religion  which 
they  had  hitherto  held  had  no  virtue  in  it,  for  no  one 
more  diligently  worshipped  the  gods  than  he,  and  yet 
there  were  others  who  were  much  more  prosperous : 
whereas,  if  the  gods  were  good  for  anything,  they  would 
have  shown  special  favour  to  him.  After  the  worldly  high 
priest,  one  of  the  king's  thanes  spoke.    "The  present 


32    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


life  of  man,  O  king,  seems  to  me  in  comparison  with 
that  which  is  unknown  to  us,  like  the  swift  flight  of  a 
sparrow  through  the  hall  where  you  sit  in  winter  at 
supper  with  your  commanders  and  ministers,  and  a  good 
fire  within,  while  storms  of  rain  and  snow  prevail  with- 
out ;  the  sparrow  flies  in  at  one  door  and  immediately 
out  at  another;  whilst  he  is  within  he  is  safe  from  the 
wintry  storm,  but  after  a  short  space  in  the  light  and 
warmth  of  the  hall,  he  vanishes  out  of  sight  into  the 
dark  and  storm  from  which  he  came.  So  this  life  of 
man  appears  here  for  a  short  space,  but  of  what  went 
before  or  what  is  to  follow  we  are  utterly  ignorant.  If 
this  new  doctrine  can  tell  us  something  more  certain  it 
deserves  lo  be  followed." 

The  result  of  the  consultation  was  the  acceptance 
of  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  Northumbria.  The 
baptism  of  the  king  took  place  at  York,  and  seems  to 
have  been  made  a  great  public  function,  as  it  deserved 
to  be.  While  the  catechumens  were  being  instructed, 
an  oratory  of  timber  was  erected  over  a  spring  for  the 
baptistery ;  and  no  doubt  a  number  of  the  thanes  and 
others  were  baptized  at  the  same  time  as  the  king.  A 
church  of  stone  was  immediately  afterwards  begun,  en- 
closing this  oratory,  and  remained  unfinished  for  many 
years  until  Oswy  completed  it.  The  present  Cathedral 
of  York  represents  this  early  church,  and  the  high  altar 
stood  over  the  spring  in  which  Edwin  was  baptized 
until  the  present  century. 

The  work  of  Paulinus  in  Northumbria  was  conducted 
under  peculiar  conditions  which  need  a  little  considera- 
tion. Passing  straight  from  reading  of  the  work  of 
the  Church  in  Kent,  where  there  was  a  numerous  band 
of  missionaries,  we  are  in  danger  of  overlooking  the  fact 
that  throughout  the  reign  of  Edwin,  so  far  as  we  see. 


THE  ITALIAN  MISSION  IN  NORTHUMBRIA  33 


Paulinus  was  the  only  priest  in  Northumbria.  To  do 
honour  to  his  royal  patroness  and  to  give  him  prestige 
at  the  court  of  Edwin,  he  had  been  consecrated  bishop ; 
but  he  was  practically  Queen  Bertha's  chaplain.  James 
the  Deacon  appears  upon  the  scene  of  Bede's  history 
subsequently  without  any  account  of  his  antecedents ; 
but  it  seems  highly  probable  that  he  accompanied 
Paulinus  from  Kent.  It  was  not  perhaps  so  indispensable 
as  it  is  in  the  East,  but  it  was  highly  expedient  in  the 
circumstances,  that  Paulinus  should  have  a  deacon  to 
assist  him  in  the  celebration  of  the  Eucharist,  and  to 
give  him  general  help  in  his  office  about  the  queen  and 
the  Christian  female  attendants,  who,  it  is  reasonable 
to  suppose,  accompanied  her  to  the  North.  The  chief 
duty  of  Paulinus,  then,  was  to  be  always  with  the  queen 
and  to  maintain  divine  service  unintermittingly  on  her 
account.  He  was  by  no  means  at  liberty  to  wander 
through  the  country  at  will  as  a  missionary;  such 
wandering  would  have  been  a  neglect  of  the  special 
duty  which  had  been  committed  to  him.  His  mis- 
sionary work  had  therefore  to  be  done  at  the  court 
of  the  king.  But  since  the  king  and  his  court 
passed  from  one  royal  ville  to  another,  staying  for  a 
time  at  each  ;  and  wherever  the  king  resided  there 
would  be  a  great  resort  of  the  neighbouring  thanes  and 
people,  Paulinus  could  hardly  have  devised  a  better 
plan  of  missionary  work,  at  least  in  its  earlier  time, 
than  to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunities  which  these 
royal  progresses  and  residences  offered  him.  Thus 
he  could  preach  to  the  thanes  and  people  of  succes- 
sive neighbourhoods  under  the  present  countenance 
of  the  Christian  king  and  queen.  Bede  gives  an 
account  of  his  doings  at  Adgefrin  (Yeaverin,  parish  of 
Kirk  Newton,  in  Glendale),  no  doubt  as  a  sample  of  the 
s.  T.  c 


34    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 

evangelising  work  done  on  these  occasions.  "  So  great," 
he  says,  "was  the  fervour  of  the  faith  and  the  desire 
of  the  washing  of  salvation  among  the  nation  of  the 
Northumbrians,  that  Paulinus  at  a  certain  time,  coming 
with  the  king  and  queen  to  the  royal  seat  which  is 
called  Adgefrin,  stayed  there  with  them  thirty-six  days, 
fully  occupied  in  catechising  and  baptizing;  during 
which  days  from  morning  to  night  he  did  nothing  else 
but  instruct  the  people  resorting  from  all  villages  and 
places,  in  Christ's  saving  word,  and  when  instructed  he 
washed  them  with  the  water  of  absolution  in  the  river 
Glen  which  is  close  by."  Bede  adds  that  "in  Deira 
also,  where  he  was  wont  often  to  be  with  the  king,  he 
baptized  in  the  river  Swale,  which  runs  by  the  village  of 
Cataract  (near  Richmond),  for  as  yet  oratories  or  fonts 
could  not  be  made  in  the  early  infancy  of  the  church 
in  those  parts."  At  another  of  the  royal  villes  at  Cam- 
podunum  (Doncaster?),  Paulinus  built  another  church, 
which  was  burned  by  the  pagan  Caedwalla  when  he 
overran  Northumbria  in  633  a.d.  The  church  was 
probably  of  wood,  since  only  the  stone  altar  escaped 
destruction.! 

The  way  in  which  the  work  of  Paulinus  depended 
upon  the  movements  of  the  king  and  queen  is  shown  in 
another  interesting  passage  of  the  history.  The  province 
of  Lindsey  (in  Lincolnshire),  long  in  dispute  between 
Northumbria  and  Mercia,  was  at  that  time  under  the 
power  of  Edwin,  and  it  is  most  likely  that  it  was  in 
accompanying  the  king  and  the  court  on  a  long  visit  to 
this  province  that  Paulinus  found  the  opportunity  to  do 
some  good  missionary  work,  the  results  of  which  have 
lasted  to  the  present  day.     He  preached  at  Lincoln, 


»  Eccl.  Hist.,  ii.  i^. 


THE  ITALIAN  MISSION  IN  NORTHUMBRIA  35 


where  he  converted  Blecca,  the  governor  (Prefect)  of  the 
city,  with  all  his  family,  and  built  "  a  stone  church  of 
beautiful  workmanship,"  probably  the  predecessor  of  the 
present  St.  Paul's  (?  Paulinus')  church,  which  stands  in 
the  middle  of  the  ancient  Colonia  Lindum.  Paulinus 
also  preached  and  baptized  in  the  presence  of  the  king 
a  great  number  of  people  at  Zeovulfingaceaster  (South- 
well, in  Notts).  The  fact  that  the  bishops  of  York  had  a 
residence  at  Southwell,  and  held  it  as  a  peculiar  of  their 
See,  with  certain  rights  over  all  the  parish  churches  of 
Nottinghamshire,  throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  seems  to 
indicate  some  royal  grant  to  the  See  of  York  on  this 
occasion.  It  was  one  of  the  men  baptized  here  whose 
interesting  description  of  St.  Paulinus  has  been  preserved 
by  Bede :  "  He  was  wont  to  describe  him  as  tall  of 
stature,  a  little  stooping,  his  hair  black,  his  visage 
meagre,  his  nose  slender  and  aquiline,  his  aspect  both 
venerable  and  majestic."  ^  It  is  a  masterly  pen  and  ink 
sketch,  and  brings  the  man  vividly  before  us. 

Edwin  had  ruled  over  Northumbria  for  seventeen 
prosperous  years,  six  years  of  which  he  had  been  a 
Christian,  when  there  came  a  terrible  reverse.  The 
princes  of  the  Britons  united  their  forces  under  Cred- 
walla,  in  whom  they  recognised  some  sort  of  overlord- 
ship,  and  Caedwalla  entered  into  an  alliance  with  Penda, 
the  powerful  king  of  the  Mercians,  and  their  united  forces 
invaded  Northumbria,  and  defeate  d  and  slew  Edwin  in 
a  great  battle  at  Heathfield  (Hatfield,  near  Doncaster) 
in  633.  Caedwalla  ravaged  Northumbria  with  great 
cruelty,  "resolving  to  cut  ofT  the  race  of  the  English 
within  the  borders  of  Britain  ;  nor  did  he  pay  any  respect 
to  the  Christian  religion  which  had  newly  taken  root 


'  Bede,  Eccl.  Hist.,  ii.  16. 


36    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


among  them."i  From  Bede's  point  of  view  Caed walla 
was  an  oppressor  of  the  English ;  but  from  the  opposite 
point  of  view  he  was  the  last  great  hero  of  the  British 
race,  the  victor  in  forty  battles,  the  conqueror  of  five 
kings;  and  his  conquest  of  Northumberland  is  to  be 
noted  as  the  last  great  attempt  of  the  Britons  to  drive 
back  the  Teutonic  invasion.  Paulinus  fled  with  Ethel- 
burga  and  her  children,  and  returned  by  sea  to  Kent 
after  eight  years'  absence ;  he  took  back  with  him  a  gold 
cross  and  gold  chalice,  which  were  long  after  preserved 
in  the  church  at  Canterbury.  Paulinus  was  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Rochester,  and  the  widowed  queen  became 
the  first  abbess  of  the  double  monastery  of  Lyminge,  as 
has  been  already  said. 


1  Bede,  Eccl.  Hist. ,  ii.  20. 


CHAPTER  VI 


THE  CELTIC  MISSION 

So  far  the  Italian  mission  was  the  only  one  in  the  field. 
The  British  Church  had  declined  to  join  with  Augustine 
in  the  conversion  of  the  barbarians.  It  was  perhaps 
hardly  to  be  expected.  Augustine  was  an  Italian,  work- 
ing among  the  men  of  Kent,  who  had  been  in  peaceful 
possession  of  their  country  for  a  hundred  years ;  but  in 
the  West  the  strife  between  the  two  races  still  raged ;  if 
the  Britons  had  shown  the  superhuman  charity  to  offer 
their  evangelising  ministrations  to  their  ferocious  enemy, 
it  is  not  likely  that  the  Saxons  would  have  listened 
to  the  teaching  of  a  race  which  they  despised.  We 
have  now  to  turn  to  the  history  of  a  new  mission,  to 
which  in  the  long  run  Teutonic  England  owed  the 
greater  part  of  its  evangelisation,  and  which  did  in- 
directly bring  the  influence  of  the  British  Church  to  bear 
upon  the  English  and  Saxon  peoples. 

The  Welsh  Church  of  the  sixth  century,  in  spite  of 
the  troubles  of  the  period,  possessed  several  men  famous 
for  their  learning  and  sanctity,  and  the  Irish  saints  of 
the  time  are  represented  in  their  legendary  lives  as  going 
to  Britain,  and  especially  to  St.  David,  for  their  religious 
training.  Finan,  one  of  these  Irish  saints,  after  spend- 
ing thirty  years  in  Britain,  chiefly  in  the  monastery  of 
St,  David,  and  having  also  had  the  instructions  of  St. 

37 


38    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


Caradoc  and  Gildas  (the  historian),  at  length  returned 
to  Ireland  "  with  several  of  the  religious  Britons,"  whom 
legendary  story  calls  "  the  Twelve  Apostles  of  Ireland," 
and  there  they  founded  the  great  monastery  of  Clonard  in 
Meath.  In  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  Columba,  a 
monk  of  Clonard,  with  twelve  companions,  settled  in  the 
little  island  of  Hi  (latinised  into  lona),  off  the  coast  of 
Galloway,  and  founded  a  monastery  there,  which  became 
a  centre  of  missions  to  the  neighbouring  countries. 

The  kingdom  of  Northumbria  was  divided  into  two 
sub-kingdoms,  Deira  (  =  Yorkshire)  and  Bernicia  ( =  Nor- 
thumberland and  Durham),  ruled  by  two  branches  of 
the  house  of  Ida,  the  conqueror.  There  was  a  constant 
rivalry  between  these  two  families,  and  sometimes  one, 
sometimes  the  other  obtained  the  upper  hand,  and 
for  a  time  united  the  two  sub-kingdoms  in  one  hand. 
Edwin  of  Bernicia,  whose  conversion  we  have  recorded, 
had  made  himself  king  of  united  Northumbria  by  a 
successful  battle  with  Ethelfrid,i  of  the  rival  royal  house 
of  Deira.  The  two  young  sons  of  Ethelfrid,  with  a 
train  of  young  nobles,  had  fled  and  sought  safety  among 
the  Scots,  and  had  embraced  Christianity  at  the  hands 
of  the  fathers  of  lona. 

In  63s  A.D.  the  banished  Oswald,  son  of  Ethelfrid 
of  the  royal  family  of  Deira,  set  himself  to  reconquer 
Northumbria  from  Cffidwalla.  Returning  with  the  com- 
panions of  his  exile,  he  was  joined  by  some  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen,  and  on  the  approach  of  the  British  king, 
he  awaited  battle  at  the  place  subsequently  called  Heven- 
felt,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Hexham,  under  the  shadow 
of  the  Roman  wall.    Before  the  engagement  began, 

1  The  king  who  had  extended  Northumbria  westward  and  won 
the  battle  of  Chester  in  613.   See  p.  20. 


THE  CELTIC  MISSION 


39 


Oswald  with  his  own  hands  set  up  a  cross  of  wood,  and 
with  his  little  army  knelt  before  it  and  prayed  for  victory. 
From  Bede's  statement  that  before  this  cross  "  there 
was  no  sign  of  the  Christian  faith,  no  church,  no  altar, 
erected  throughout  all  the  nation  of  the  Bernicians," 
it  may  be  inferred  that  the  missionary  labours  of 
Paulinus  had  not  made  much  impression  upon  this 
northern  portion  of  Northumbria.  The  result  of  the 
battle  was  that  Csedwalla  was  defeated  and  slain,  and 
Oswald  recovered  the  throne  of  united  Northumbria 
to  himself  and  his  descendants.  This  was  one  of  the 
decisive  battles  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  conquest,  for  it  put 
an  end  to  the  last  endeavour  of  the  Britons  to  recover 
the  land  which  they  had  lost. 

Oswald  was  a  man  of  earnest  piety,  "  a  most  Christian 
king"  Bede  calls  him,  and  as  soon  as  he  was  established 
on  the  throne  he  took  steps  for  the  conversion  of  his 
people.  "  Jacob  the  Deacon  "  now  appears  on  the  scene. 
He  had  apparently  remained  behind  when  Paulinus 
returned  to  Kent  in  charge  of  the  widowed  Ethelburga 
and  her  children.  Oswald  did  not  invite  Jacob  to  send*^ 
to  Canterbury  for  other  missionaries  to  continue  the 
interrupted  work  of  Paulinus,  but  sent  to  lona  to  invite^ 
the  abbot  to  send  him  a  bishop  {antistes).  The  first" 
who  was  sent  soon  returned  and  reported  to  the  com- 
munity that  the  Northumbrians  were  a  stubborn  and 
impracticable  people  with  whom  nothing  could  be  done. 
One  of  the  brethren  present  commented  on  the  state- 
ment. "Brother,"  said  Aidan,  "it  seems  to  me  that  you 
have  been  unduly  hard  upon  these  untaught  hearers,  and 
have  not  given  them  first,  according  to  the  Apostle's 
precept,  the  milk  of  less  solid  doctrine,  until,  gradually 
nurtured  on  the  word  of  God,  they  should  have  strength 
enough  to  digest  the  more  perfect  lessons."    He  who 


40    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


had  given  the  wise  counsel  seemed  to  be  the  man  best 
fitted  to  carry  it  out ;  and  Aidan  was  forthwith  "  or- 
dained" bishop  and  sent  to  Oswald.  ^ 

Aidan  was  accompanied  by  several  of  the  brethren  of 
lona,  and  other  Celtic  monks  came  to  him  from  day  to 
day.  The  Columban  monks  preferred  an  island  near 
the  mainland  for  the  site  of  their  principal  houses  ;  the 
new  mission  was  accordingly  established  in  the  small 
island  of  Lindisfarne  on  the  Northumbrian  coast,  under 
the  shadow  of  the  king's  rock-seated  residence  at  Bam- 
borough.  The  island  was  flat  and  unproductive,  but  it 
afforded  the  seclusion  which  the  monks  desired,  while 
the  ebb  tide  left  a  passage  across  the  sands  twice  a  day 
from  the  mainland,  so  that  it  was  sufficiently  accessible 
for  the  resort  of  people  who  had  business  with  the  island. 
Of  the  buildings  which  were  erected  on  the  Holy  Isle 
there  is  no  description,  but  they  would  probably  be  in 
imitation  of  those  of  lona,  where  the  church  and  larger 
apartments  were  of  great  timbers  and  planks,  and  the 
smaller  rooms  of  wattle,  after  the  Celtic  fashion  of  building. 
The  church  built  at  Lindisfarne  by  Finan,  the  successor 
of  Aidan,  was  "not  of  stone,  but  of  hewn  oak  covered 
with  reeds."  The  existing  Saxon  church  at  Greenstead  in 
Essex  shows  that  the  "  hewn  oak  "  means  trunks  of  trees 
split  in  two  and  placed  side  by  side,  with  their  flat  sides 
inward.  Eadbert,  a  later  bishop,  took  off  the  thatch 
and  covered  both  roof  and  walls  with  plates  of  lead. 

Here  the  Scottish  colony  established  itself  as  a 
monastery  following  the  Columban  rule  ;  but  the  monas- 
tery was  not  so  much  a  place  of  religious  retirement  as 
a  centre  of  missionary  work ;  its  abbot  was  the  Bishop 

1  There  are  forty-eight  years  between  the  beginning  of  Augustine's 
work  and  that  of  Aidan. 


THE  CELTIC  MISSION 


41 


of  the  Northumbrians,  its  brethren  were  missionaries. 
Education  formed  an  important  feature  of  the  work. 
Aidan  at  once  took  permanent  charge  of  twelve  EngHsh 
youths  as  disciples — among  them  were  the  future  bishops 
Eata,  Cedd,  Chad,  and  Wilfrid — and  thus  a  native  clergy 
was  speedily  taught  and  trained.  This  sacred  spot  was 
the  seat  of  sixteen  bishops  in  succession  before  the 
Danes  destroyed  the  house ;  and  from  it  went  forth  the 
Englishmen  who  planted  the  Church  in  the  north  and 
midland  and  part  of  the  east  of  England. 

We  are  able,  by  bringing  together  the  scattered 
notices  in  Bede's  history  of  the  time,  to  see  how  the 
Church  was  gradually  planted  in  Northumbria.  As 
Paulinus  was  usually  in  attendance  on  the  court 
wherever  it  went,  so  Aidan  was  frequently  with  the 
king  in  his  progresses  through  the  country  and  his  stay 
at  the  different  royal  villes,  and  Bede  relates  how  the 
king  would  sometimes  interpret  the  Celtic  bishop's  ad- 
dresses to  the  Northumbrian  hearers. 

"  He  was  wont  to  traverse  both  town  and  country  on 
foot,  never  on  horseback  unless  compelled  by  some 
urgent  necessity."  "All  those  who  bore  him  company, 
whether  they  were  monks  or  laymen,  were  employed  in 
meditation,  that  is,  either  in  reading  the  Scriptures  or  in 
learning  psalms.  This  was  the  daily  employment  of 
himself  and  all  that  were  with  liim,  wherever  they  went." 
"  He  never  gave  presents  of  money  to  the  powerful 
when  he  happened  to  entertain  them,  and  whatever 
gifts  of  money  he  received  from  the  rich  he  either  dis- 
tributed to  the  poor,  or  bestowed  them  in  ransoming  such 
as  had  been  wrongfully  sold  for  slaves,  many  of  whom, 
after  having  taught  and  instructed  them,  he  advanced  to 
the  order  of  the  priesthood." 

Aidan  was  a  man  who  for  his  great  work  and  saintly 


42   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


character  deserves  a  place  in  a  reformed  Calendar  of 
the  English  Church.^  "He  was,"  says  Bede,  "a  man  of 
singular  meekness,  piety,  and  zeal."  "  It  was  the  highest 
commendation  of  his  doctrine  that  he  taught  no  other- 
wise than  he  and  his  followers  lived."  "He  was  be- 
loved and  venerated  by  all,  even  by  the  bishops  of 
the  Italian  school,  Honorius  of  Canterbury  and  Felix 
of  the  East  Angles." 

In  642  A.D.,  after  a  short  reign  of  eight  years,  Oswald 
was  slain  in  battle  at  Maserfield  (?  Oswestry  =  Oswald's 
tree)  with  his  old  enemy  Penda.  His  dying  words, 
a  prayer  for  his  people,  passed  into  a  proverb,  "  O  God 
have  mercy  on  their  souls,  said  Oswald  as  he  fell."  In 
those  eight  years  he  had  laid  the  solid  foundations  of 
the  Church  in  Northumbria,  whence  it  spread  rapidly 
into  several  other  of  the  Heptarchic  kingdoms.  His 
brother  and  successor,  Oswy,  during  his  long  reign  of 
twenty-seven  years,  was  hardly  inferior  to  Oswald  in  his 
friendship  for  Aidan  and  his  zeal  for  the  maintenance 
and  extension  of  the  faith. 

Before  the  battle  near  Leeds  (655)  in  which  he  de- 
feated and  slew  Penda  of  Mercia,  he  made  a  vow  that  in 
the  event  of  his  winning  back  the  kingdom  he  would 
found  twelve  monasteries,  six  in  Bernicia  and  six  in  Deira. 
What  this  means  was  that  the  king  gave  so  many  tracts 
of  land,  each  cultivated  by  ten  families,  in  each  of  these 
places,  and  two  or  three  of  Aidan's  monks  were  setded 
upon  each,  who  gathered  lay  brethren  about  them,  and 
set  up  Divine  worship  and  opened  schools ;  and  thus 
each  became  a  new  centre  of  Christian  teaching  and 
influence.  Other  thanes  and  landholders  followed  the 
king's  example  ;  and  men  sometimes  dedicated  their  own 


'  His  day  would  be  August  31. 


THE  CELTIC  MISSIOM  43 

patrimony  to  the  Church,  and  became  the  first  abbots.  It 
will  be  convenient  to  give  here  a  summary  of  the  rest  of 
the  English  conversions,  without  entering  into  details. 

Conversion  of  the  West  Saxons. — Oswald,  on  his 
establishment  in  his  kingdom,  sought  a  bride  of  the 
royal  family  of  the  West  Saxons.  At  the  court  of 
Kynegils  he  found  an  Italian,  Birinus,  who  had  been 
consecrated  bishop  at  Genoa  with  a  view  to  his  under- 
taking the  conversion  of  some  heathen  country.  Oswald 
no  doubt  added  his  influence  to  the  preaching  of 
Birinus,  with  the  happy  result  that  Kynegils  accepted 
Christianity,  Oswald  taking  the  position  of  sponsor  to 
his  father-in-law.  ]>irinus  became  the  first  bishop  of  the 
West  Saxons  (a.d.  635). 

The  Conversion  of  Mercia. — Peada,  the  son  of  Penda 
the  fierce  heathen  king  of  Mercia,  had  been  made  by 
his  father  sub-king  of  the  district  of  the  Middle  Angles. 
In  the  year  652  a.d.  he  sought  a  daughter  of  Oswy  of 
Northumbria  for  his  wife.  Alchfrid,  the  son  of  Oswy, 
was  already  married  to  the  sister  of  Peada.  The  objec- 
tion to  giving  a  Christian  princess  in  marriage  to  a 
heathen  was  happily  removed  by  Peada's  conversion : 
"  When  he  had  heard  the  preaching  of  the  truth,  the 
promises  of  the  heavenly  kingdom,  and  tlie  hope  of 
resurrection,  he  declared  that  he  would  willingly  become 
a  Christian,  though  he  should  be  refused  the  maiden." 
"  So  he  was  baptized,  together  with  the  earls  and  soldiers 
and  servants  who  had  accompanied  him."  When  he 
returned  home,  he  took  Chadd  and  three  other  Nor- 
thumbrian priests  with  him,  who  established  the  Church 
among  the  Middle  Angles. 

Conversion  of  the  East  Saxons. — Sigebert,  king  of 
the  East  Saxons,  coming  on  a  visit  to  Oswy  in  the  year 
(653  A.D.)  after  Penda's  visit,  was  converted,  with  the 


44   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


thanes  who  accompanied  him.  On  his  return  he  took 
with  him  two  Northumbrian  priests,  Cedd,  the  brother  of 
Chadd,  and  another,  to  convert  liis  people.  Cedd  estab- 
Hshed  two  mission  centres  in  Essex,  one  at  Tilabery 
(East  Tilbury),  where  a  ford  from  Kent  crossed  the 
Thames,  and  the  other  at  Ythanacester  (Bradwell),  on  the 
site  of  the  Roman  fortress  Othoiia,  on  the  east  coast; 
and  from  these  centres  Essex  was  evangelised. 

Conversion  of  the  East  Angles. — There  had  been  two 
previous  failures  to  establish  the  faith  among  the  in- 
habitants of  this  peninsula.  Redwald  had  been  baptized 
at  the  court  of  Ethelbert,  but  the  Gospel  did  not  spread 
among  his  family  or  people.  His  son  Eorpwald  was  in- 
duced by  Edwin  of  Northumbria  to  abandon  his  old 
religion  with  his  whole  province  (627  a.d.)  and  receive 
the  faith  and  sacraments  of  Christ,  but  shortly  after- 
wards he  was  slain,  and  the  province  relapsed.  Three 
years  afterwards  his  brother  Sigebert,  who  had  been 
living  in  exile  in  Burgundy,  was  recalled  to  take  posses- 
sion of  the  kingdom.  He  had  embraced  the  faith  in 
his  exile  and  was  "a  most  Christian  and  learned  man," 
and  was  most  desirous  of  introducing  among  his  people 
the  good  institutions  which  he  had  seen  in  France.  In 
this  he  was  assisted  by  Bishop  Felix,  a  Burgundian,  who 
settled  as  bishop  of  the  East  Angles  at  Dunwich,  and 
introduced  masters  and  teachers  after  the  French 
manner.  Shortly  afterwards  a  learned  monk  of  noble 
Scottish  blood  named  Furzey  came  from  Ireland  with 
five  companions,  and  founded  a  monastery  within  the 
area  of  the  old  Roman  station  at  Burgh  Castle,  near  the 
northern  coast,  and  from  these  two  centres  the  country 
was  evangelised. 

Conversion  of  the  South  Saxons. —  The  kingdom  of 
the  South  Saxons,  though  so  near  Kent,  was  the  last  of 


THE  CELTIC  MISSION 


the  English  kingdoms  to  be  converted.  In  the  middle 
of  the  century,  Ethelwealh,  the  king,  had  married  a 
Christian  wife,  Ebba,  daughter  of  Eanfrid,  sub-king  of 
the  Wiccii,  and  apparently  had  received  baptism  as  a 
condition  of  the  marriage  (66i  a.d.).  A  little  company 
of  five  or  six  Irish  monks  lived  in  a  little  monastery 
near  Bosham,  but  no  one,  Bede  says,  cared  to  imitate 
their  life  or  listen  to  their  preaching.  At  this  time  it 
happened  that  Wilfrid  of  York,  when  banished  from 
Northumbria  (as  will  be  seen  in  the  subsequent  narrative), 
found  his  way  to  Sussex  (68 1  a.d.),  and  was  welcomed 
by  Ethelwealh,  who  gave  him  a  tract  of  land  at  Selsey. 
Wilfrid  enfranchised  and  baptized  2  50  slaves  whom  he 
found  on  his  estate,  built  a  church,  and  made  a  good 
beginning  of  the  South  Saxon  conversion.  ^1 

To  sum  up  the  history  of  the  English  conversion, 
Kent  owes  its  Christianity  to  the  Roman  mission  of 
Gregory  ;  Northumbria,  Mercia,  and  Essex,  to  the  Celtic 
mission  at  Lindisfarne ;  East  Anglia  to  Burgundian  Felix 
and  Scottish  Furzey ;  Wessex  to  Genevan  Birinus  and 
the  French  Agilbert ;  and  the  South  Saxons  to  Nor- 
thumbrian Wilfrid.  The  English  conquests  began  550 
A.D. ;  the  evangelisation  of  the  conquerors  in  Kent  began 
with  Augustine  in  597  (long  before  the  strife  between 
the  two  races  had  come  to  an  end  in  the  West),  and 
the  conversion  of  the  South  Saxons  in  681  completed 
the  banishment  of  paganism  out  of  the  soutli  of  the 
island.  So  that  within  the  space  of  a  century,  by  a 
course  of  peaceful  missionary  work,  unchecked  by  any 
persecution  on  the  part  of  the  heathens,  unaided  by 
any  enforced  conversions  on  the  part  of  the  Christians, 
the  faith  had  been  established  in  all  the  Heptarchic 
kingdoms. 

It  is  ungracious  to  seem  to  minimise  the  gratitude  we 


46    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAXD 


owe  to  Gregory  the  Great  for  his  noble  mission  to  our 
English  forefathers,  but  when  we  find  Rome  putting 
forward  a  claim  to  the  obedience  of  the  Church  of 
England  on  the  ground  that  we  owe  our  Christianity 
to  her,  and  that  our  Church  is  an  offshoot  of  the  Roman 
Church,  it  becomes  necessary  to  point  out  that  the 
British  Church,  which  came  originally  from  the  East,  had 
existed  for  more  than  three  and  a  half  centuries  before 
Augustine  came,  and  continued  to  exist  quite  indepen- 
dent of  him  in  the  western  half  of  the  countr)' ;  that 
in  the  eastern  half  of  the  country  only  the  church  of 
Kent  traces  its  origin  to  Augustine.  That  Augustine 
laid  the  first  stone  of  the  Church  of  the  English  race 
entitles  him  to  special  honour;  but  we  are  not  willing 
to  forget  that  Aidan  and  his  disciples  also  laid  great 
foundation-stones,  and  that  the  others  whose  labours 
we  have  so  briefly  alluded  to,  completed  the  foundations 
upon  which  is  being  built  the  mighty  structure  of  the 
Church  of  the  English-speaking  peoples. 

The  Christianising  and  civilising  influence  of  the 
Church  was  brought  to  bear  upon  England  at  a  favour- 
able time.  The  rude  Teutonic  tribes  had  settled  down 
on  their  new  lands,  and  were  multiplying  and  prosper- 
ing, and  needing  the  development  of  the  institutions 
of  civilisation.  They  had  outgrown  their  old  religion. 
A  religion  which  taught  that  those  who  fell  in  combat 
were  the  favoured  sons  of  Odin,  and  that  in  Valhalla 
the  heroes  enjoyed  all  day  the  fierce  delight  of  battle 
and  spent  the  night  in  feasting  on  swine's  flesh  and 
drinking  ale  with  the  gods,  might  satisfy  their  piratical 
forefathers,  but  was  not  calculated  to  meet  the  aspira- 
tions of  homely  Englishmen  devoted  to  the  cultivation 
of  their  glebe  and  the  well-being  of  their  flocks  and 
herds.  Most  of  their  Teutonic  kinsmen,  Burgundians  and 


THE  CELTIC  MISSION 


47 


Goths,  who  had  won  for  themselves  kingdoms  in 
Europe,  were  Christians  before  their  conquests  began ; 
their  nearest  neighbours,  the  Franks,  had  embraced 
Christianity  soon  after  they  had  settled  themselves  in 
Gaul.  The  old  heathenism  was  a  part  of  the  old  bar- 
barism, and  Christianity  was  the  religion  of  the  civilised 
world.  It  was  no  doubt  this  condition  of  things  which 
influenced  the  course  of  the  English  conversions.  The 
kings  and  their  counsellors  understood  that  progress 
in  civilisation  involved,  in  the  circumstances,  the  adop- 
tion of  Christianity ;  when  the  question  was  proposed  to 
the  folk-mote,  the  people  were  willing  to  follow  their 
chiefs ;  and  so  nation  after  nation  entered  bodily  into 
the  fold  of  Christ. 

Such  wholesale  conversions  could  not  be  other  than 
shallow,  and  hence  the  early  apostasies  of  which  we 
have  read  in  several  of  the  kingdoms.  But  on  the 
whole  the  people  put  themselves  into  the  hands  of  their 
new  teachers  with  little  reluctance.  And  the  teaching 
fell  on  good  ground.  The  race  must  have  been  one  of 
great  natural  qualities.  It  is  surprising  to  find  among 
the  very  first  disciples  of  Aidan  in  rude  Northumbria 
men  of  sufficient  learning  and  character  to  be  intrusted 
with  the  duty  of  laying  the  foundations  of  new  churches 
like  Chadd  and  Cedd,  men  of  the  intellectual  eminence 
and  culture  of  Wilfrid  and  Benedict  Biscop.  Kent  also 
had  native  bishops  in  the  second  generation,  for  Ithamar 
of  Rochester  was  a  Kentish  man,  and  Deusdedit  of 
Canterbury  was  a  Wessex  man  notwithstanding  his  Latin 
name.  Indeed  the  new  religion  was  embraced  with  great 
earnestness  among  all  classes  of  the  people. 

The  monastic  institution  was  in  great  favour  at  this 
time ;  the  monasteries  were  spiritual  fortresses,  schools 
of  learning,  centres  of  evangelisation ;  and  the  gradual 


48    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


conversion  of  the  country  was  carried  on  largely  on 
these  monastic  lines.  Kings  and  ealdormen  and 
thanes  gave  lands,  and  the  missionaries  planted  small 
communities  upon  them ;  landowners  turned  their  own 
houses  into  monasteries  and  became  themselves  the 
first  abbots  and  abbesses;  sometimes  they  gave  them  to 
the  Church,  sometimes  kept  them  as  hereditary  bene- 
fices. The  part  which  women  of  royal  and  noble 
families  took  in  the  early  history  of  the  English  Church 
is  very  remarkable,  and  without  a  parallel  in  Church 
history.  It  recalls  to  mind  what  Tacitus  said  centuries 
before  of  the  character  and  influence  of  the  women 
of  their  Teutonic  ancestry.  At  first,  before  there  were 
monasteries  for  women  in  England,  they  went  to  foreign 
houses,  to  Farmoustier,  Chelles,  Andelye,  and  Brie. 
But  nunneries  were  very  early  founded,  as  we  have  seen, 
in  Kent.  In  Northumbria  Aidan  encouraged  Hieu  to 
organise  a  small  house  at  Hartlepool,  which  was  after- 
wards removed  to  Whitby,  and  became  famous  under 
Abbess  Hilda.  The  most  remarkable  thing  was  that 
many  of  these  houses  were  double  bouses  for  monks 
and  nuns  living  in  adjoining  buildings,  worshipping  in 
the  same  church,  all  under  the  rule  of  the  abbess.  Thus 
in  addition  to  the  Kentish  houses  already  mentioned 
(p.  30),  Whitby,  Barking,  Coldingham,  Ely,  Wenlock, 
Repandun,  Wigorn,  Wimborne,  were  all  double  houses.^ 
About  ICQ  religious  houses  are  known  to  us  as  founded 
before  the  Norman  Conquest. 

'  At  Beverley,  a  monastery  of  monks,  a  college  of  canons,  and 
a  convent  of  nuns  obeyed  the  same  abbot. 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE  HEPTARCHIC  CHURCHES  UNITED  INTO 
THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  there  were  some 
differences  between  the  churches  of  the  Celtic  foundation 
and  those  founded  by  missionaries  from  the  Continent. 
These  differences  were  only  on  some  unimportant  matters 
of  custom  and  ritual,  and  there  was  nothing  like  a  schism 
between  the  two  schools,  but  there  was  some  jealous 
feeling,  and  when  they  came  into  contact  a  certain 
amount  of  friction.  Matters  came  to  a  crisis  in  Nor- 
thumbria,  where  the  two  schools  existed  side  by  side. 
The  prevailing  use  of  Northumbria  was  that  of  Lindis- 
farne,  and  this  was  followed  by  Oswy  the  king.  But 
the  queen,  Eanfleda,  was  one  of  the  children  with  whom 
the  widowed  Ethelburga,  on  the  defeat  and  death  of 
Edwin,  had  fled  to  her  native  Kent ;  she  had  been 
brought  up  in  the  Kentish  customs,  and  had  continued 
them  in  Northumbria  under  the  influence  of  Romanus, 
the  chaplain  who  had  accompanied  her  from  Kent ;  for 
it  seems  to  have  been  the  custom  for  a  Christian  queen 
to  take  a  chaplain  of  her  own  country  with  her  to  her 
husband's  court,  as  her  adviser  and  the  governor  of  her 
family.  Besides  the  cases  of  Bertha  and  Ethelburga  and 
this  of  Eanfleda,  there  is  also  that  of  Etheldrid,  who, 


so   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


when  she  left  East  AngHa  to  be  the  wife  of  King  Wulf- 
here  of  Mercia,  was  accompanied  by  the  monk  Owini  as 
"her  prime  minister  and  the  governor  of  her  family." 
(Bede,  Eccl.  Hist.  iv.  3.)  Besides  the  queen  there  were 
other  adherents  of  the  Continental  customs.  Jacob  the 
Deacon  had  kept  up  an  influence.  Wilfrid  and  Benedict 
Biscop,  and  perhaps  a  few  others,  had  travelled  on  the 
Continent,  and  had  recognised  the  superior  learning  of 
the  Continental  churches  and  embraced  their  customs. 
Alchfred,  the  king's  son,  was  the  friend  of  Wilfrid,  and 
had  given  him  a  monastery  at  Ripon,  into  which  Wilfrid 
had  introduced  the  Continental  customs.  The  court 
itself,  therefore,  was  divided  between  the  two  parties ;  and 
though  it  might  not  really  matter  much  whether  Easter 
was  kept  by  the  computation  of  one  school  or  of  the 
other,  it  was  practically  inconvenient,  and  somewhat  of 
a  scandal,  that  while  the  king  and  his  men  and  the 
people  generally  were  keeping  the  great  Easter  festival, 
the  queen  and  her  women  and  an  influential  knot  of 
adherents  should  be  still  amidst  the  austerities  of  Holy 
Week. 

It  happened  that  Agilbert,  the  Gallic  bishop  who  had 
just  resigned  the  West  Saxon  see,  came  (664  a.d.,  22nd 
year  of  Oswy)  on  a  long  visit  to  the  court  of  Nor- 
thumbria  with  a  priest,  Agatho,  in  his  train,  and  their 
comments  on  the  difference  of  customs  led  to  the  calling 
of  a  synod,  which  was  held  at  Hilda's  monasteiy  of 
Whitby,  to  consider  the  matter.  Cedd,  Bishop  of  the 
East  Saxons,  happened  also  to  be  present  (664  a.d.). 
The  account  of  the  opening  of  the  synod  by  Oswy,  and 
of  the  discussion  between  Bishop  Colman  of  Lindisfarne 
on  the  one  side,  and  Wilfrid,  the  chief  speaker  on  the 
other,  is  given  at  length  by  Bede  (iii.  25).  The  result 
was  that  the  king  and  the  majority  decided  to  accept  the 


THE  HBPTARCHIC  CHURCHES  Jt 

Continental  customs.  Colman  resigned  his  see,  and, 
with  those  of  his  monks  who  agreed  with  him,  retired 
from  Northumbria.^ 

When  Colman  retired  from  Lindisfarne,  Tuda  was 
put  in  his  place,  and  on  his  death  within  a  few  months, 
Wilfrid  was  chosen.  He  went  abroad  to  seek  consecra- 
tion from  his  friend  Agilbert  of  Paris ;  but  he  stayed 
away  so  long,  that  people  got  tired  of  waiting  for  his 
return,  and  Chadd  was  nominated  and  consecrated  (in 
the  vacancy  of  Canterbury)  by  Wini,  Bishop  of  the 
West  Saxons,  assisted  by  "two  bishops  of  the  British 
nation  who  kept  Easter  in  the  canonical  manner,"  pro- 
bably bishops  of  the  independent  churches  of  West 
Wales  (Devon  and  Cornwall).  Wilfrid,  on  his  return 
in  665  or  666  a.d.,  found  his  seat  occupied,  and  retired  to 
his  monastery  of  Ripon.  We  anticipate  the  chrono- 
logical order  of  the  history  to  say  that  when  Theodore 
visited  the  North  in  the  year  after  his  arrival  (669),  he 
deposed  Chadd,  partly  on  account  of  some  unexplained 
irregularity  in  his  consecration,  but  chiefly  on  the 
ground  that  he  had  usurped  a  see  which  was  not 
vacant,  and  reinstated  Wilfrid.  Chadd  submitted  with 
characteristic  humility,  and  retired  to  the  monastery 
which  he  had  founded  on  his  property  at  Lestingham ; 
but  soon  afterwards,  on  the  death  of  Jaruman,  he  was 
made  Bishop  of  Mercia,  and  fixed  his  see  at  Lich- 
field. 

In  the  year  after  the  Synod  of  Whitby,  Deusdedit, 

'  The  other  Celtic  churches  voluntarily  adopted  the  Continent;il 
customs  one  after  another  in  the  course  of  the  eiglith  century  :  the 
Southern  I'icts  of  Galloway  in  710  ;  the  .Southern  tribes  of  Ireland 
in  the  first  half  of  the  seventh  century  ;  the  Northern  tribes  in  701  ; 
lona  in  715  ;  the  Britons  in  Wessex  in  692 ;  in  North  Wales  soon 
after,  750  ;  in  South  Wales  in  777. 


52    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 


Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  died  (665  a.d.).  Oswy  of  Nor- 
thumbria  and  Egbert  of  Kent,  having  consulted  together, 
took  steps  to  put  the  English  churches  into  harmony 
with  one  another  and  with  the  Continental  churches. 
With  this  end  in  view  they  determined,  with  the  consent 
of  the  churches,  to  send  Wighard,  one  of  Deusdedifs 
clergy,  to  Rome,  to  study  the  usages  of  the  church  at 
that  great  centre  of  the  ecclesiastical  learning  of  the 
West,  to  obtain  consecration  there,  and  on  his  return  to 
be  acknowledged  as  archbishop,  and  to  regulate  the 
affairs  of  the  English  church.  Wighard  unhappily  died 
at  Rome  with  several  of  his  companions ;  whereupon 
the  English  agreed  not  to  incur  the  delay  and  danger  of 
another  journey  to  Rome  and  back,  but  to  ask  the  Bishop 
of  Rome  to  select  a  suitable  man  and  consecrate  him. 
Vitalian,  who  was  then  Bishop  of  Rome,  chose  Hadrian, 
an  African,  abbot  of  a  monastery  near  Naples,  who  ex- 
cused himself,  but  recommended  Theodore,  a  native  of 
Tarsus  in  Cilicia,  a  monk  of  learning,  piety,  and  ability, 
who  had  come  to  Rome  lately  in  the  train  of  the 
Emperor.  Theodore  was  not  well  known  to  Vitalian, 
who  at  first  had  doubts  of  his  orthodoxy,  and  at  last  only 
consented  to  send  him  to  England  on  condition  that 
Hadrian  would  accompany  him.  Both  Theodore  and 
Hadrian  were  skilled  in  sacred  and  secular  learning; 
disciples  flocked  to  them  from  the  southern  kingdoms, 
and  Bede  testifies  that  in  his  time  there  were  some 
of  their  scholars  still  living,  as  well  versed  in  the  Greek 
and  Latin  tongues  as  in  that  in  which  they  were 
born. 

The  Organisation  of  the  Church  of  England— Synod  of 
Hertford (673  a.d.). — In  673  Theodore  assembled  a  synod 
of  bishops  and  others  at  Hertford :  there  were  present 
Theodore  of  Kent;  Bisi,  Bishop  of  the  East  Angles; 


THE  HEPTARCHIC  CHURCHES  53 


the  proxies  of  Wilfrid  of  Northumbria,  Putta  of  Rochester, 
Eleutherius  of  the  West  Saxons,  and  Winfrid  of  the 
Mercians.  These  all  agreed  to  accept  certain  canons, 
which  Bede  gives  at  length  (iv.  5),  the  effect  of  which  was 
to  unite  the  national  churches  into  an  ecclesiastical 
province.  "This,"  says  Bede,  "was  the  first  archbishop 
whom  all  the  English  churchesobeyed."  Thus  the  Church 
of  England  is  older  than  the  Englisli  monarchy,  older 
than  English  law,  older  than  English  literature,  older 
even  than  the  English  nation ;  for  there  was  a  united 
Church  of  England,  embracing  the  whole  population. 
Jute,  Angle,  and  Saxon,  a  hundred  years  before  the  king- 
doms were  united  under  the  sceptre  of  Egbert.  The 
kingdoms  continued  more  or  less  independent  of  one 
another,  and  wars  between  them  were  still  frequent ;  but 
the  church  councils,  which  brought  together  not  only 
the  bishops  and  clergy  of  all  the  kingdoms,  but  also  the 
kings,  and  their  thanes  and  ministers,  as  members  of 
one  church,  consulting  and  acting  together  for  the  highest 
interests  of  the  whole,  must  have  promoted  concord  and 
tended  to  unity. 

At  Heathfield  (Bishops  Hatfield),  seven  years  after- 
wards (680  A.D.),  a  synod  formally  declared  its  acceptance 
of  "  the  true  and  orthodox  faith  as  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
in  the  flesh  delivered  the  same  to  His  disciples,  and  as 
it  is  delivered  in  the  Creed  of  the  Holy  Fathers  (Nicene), 
and  of  all  holy  and  universal  synods  in  general,  and  by 
the  consent  of  all  approved  doctors  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  more  particularly,  "we  have  received  the  five  holy 
and  general  councils,"  &c.,  viz.,  the  five  general  councils 
which  had  been  held  up  to  that  date,  Nicjea,  325 ; 
Constantinople,  381;  Ephesus,  431;  Chalcedon,  451; 
Constantinople,  553  ; — the  sixth  council  was  held  at 
Constantinople  that  same  year,  680-1. 


54   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Theodore's  great  work,  next  to  that  of  organising  the 
churches  into  an  ecclesiastical  province — uniting  them 
intothe  Church  of  England — was  subdividingthe  dioceses. 
One  king,  one  bishop,  was  an  idea  to  which  some  of 
the  old  bishops  clung;  but  Theodore's  practical  mind 
saw  that  the  duties  of  the  episcopate  could  not  be  ful- 
filled by  one  man  in  such  dioceses  as  the  Northumbrian 
and  Mercian  kingdoms  constituted.  At  the  Council  of 
Hertford  (673)  above  mentioned,  Bisi,  Bishop  of  the  East 
Angles,  being  disabled  by  infirmity,  Theodore  took  the 
opportunity  to  divide  that  kingdom  into  two  sees,  of 
which  the  first  was  situated  at  Dunwich,  and  the  second 
was  placed  at  Elmham.  At  the  same  time  it  was  agreed, 
with  the  concurrence  of  Ethelred,  king  of  Mercia,  and 
Othere,  the  sub-king  of  the  Wiccii,  that  the  latter  people 
should  have  a  bishop  of  their  own ;  and  probably  that 
the  recently  acquired  territory  on  the  Severn,  which  is 
now  the  county  of  Hereford,  should  be  erected  into  a 
separate  diocese.  Winfrid,  Bishop  of  Lichfield,  opposed 
the  scheme,  but  was  deposed  in  675,  and  in  680  the 
partition  of  the  diocese  was  completed  by  the  Council  of 
Hatfield.  At  this  latter  council  it  was  also  resolved  to 
subdivide  the  great  Northumbrian  diocese,  making 
York  the  see  of  Deira,  and  Lindisfarne  the  see  of 
Bernicia,  besides  ordaining  a  bishop  for  the  province 
of  Lindsey.  Wilfrid  was  not  consulted,  probably  be- 
cause his  determined  opposition  was  foreseen.  Three 
years  later  a  further  subdivision  was  determined  upon, 
making  Hexham  a  see,  and  severing  Whitherne  from 
the  Pictish  province  subject  to  Northumbria.  Against 
this  subdivision  of  his  great  diocese  Wilfrid  protested 
in  vain,  and  went  off  to  Rome  to  seek  the  intervention 
of  its  Bishop.    It  is  the  earliest  example  in  our  history 


THE  HEPTARCHIC  CHURCHES  55 


of  an  appeal  to  Rome  as  to  a  higher  court  of  juris- 
diction. 

Thrown  by  a  storm  on  the  coast  of  Frisia,  Wilfrid 
showed  the  better  side  of  his  character  by  employing 
the  winter  in  the  conversion  of  the  king  and  his  chief 
men,  which  carried  with  it  the  conversion  of  the  whole 
people. 

At  Rome  he  obtained  from  Pope  Agatho  and  a  local 
synod  a  judgment  that  the  subdivision  of  his  diocese 
without  his  concurrence  was  wrong,  and  a  decree  that 
Wilfrid  should  be  reinstated  and  the  intruded  bishops 
removed ;  but  that  it  was  right  that  the  huge  diocese 
should  be  divided,  and  that  Wilfrid,  assisted  by  a  council, 
should  choose  new  bishops,  and  Theodore  should  conse- 
crate them.  But  when  Wilfrid  returned  to  Northumbria 
with  this  decision,  the  Pope's  bull  was  contemptuously 
tossed  aside,  and  Wilfrid  was  imprisoned  for  his  dis- 
loyalty to  church  and  crown.  After  a  time  he  was  set 
at  liberty  but  driven  into  exile. 

Again  a  storm  at  sea  cast  him  on  the  coast  at  Selsey, 
and  here  again  his  missionary  zeal  exhibited  itself  in 
the  conversion  of  the  peoj^le,  and  the  planting  of  the 
church  in  the  kingdom  of  the  South  Saxons,  among 
whom  he  spent  five  years.  Then  Theodore  sought  a 
reconciliation  with  him,  and  at  his  intercession  he  was 
restored  to  the  bishopric  of  Hexham,  and  on  the  death 
of  Cuthbert  he  obtained  Lindisfarne  also. 

But  again  he  quarrelled  with  the  king  and  the  church, 
and  again  appealed  to  Rome.  Pope  John  VI.  pronounced 
in  his  favour,  but  again  the  English  Church  refused  to 
listen  to  the  decision  of-  Rome.  After  a  while,  however, 
a  synod  offered  to  restore  Wilfrid  to  Ripon  and  Hexham, 
and,  broken  in  health  and  tamed  in  spirit,  he  accepted  a 
refuge  where  he  could  end  his  active,  contentious,  brilliant 


56    HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


life  in  peace.  He  died  in  709  a.d.  It  was  lamentable 
that,  through  the  blunder  of  Theodore  and  Ecgfrid,  and 
the  impracticable  temper  of  Wilfrid,  the  best  years  of  the 
greatest  genius  the  English  Church  had  produced  should 
have  been  lost  to  his  native  country. 

Besides  the  subdivision  of  dioceses,  Theodore  is  said 
to  have  promoted  the  settlement  of  parishes,  by  encourag- 
ing the  landowners  to  build  churches  and  appropriate 
the  tithes  of  their  own  estates  to  the  maintenance  of 
their  own  priest.  This  accounts  for  the  irregular  size 
and  endowment  of  parishes,  and  for  the  lay  patronage 
of  parochial  benefices. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  dioceses  are  conveniently  shown 
in  the  following  table  :— 


East  Saxons 
East  Angles 


South  Saxons 
Northumbria 


founded  about  909. 


Sees. 
Canterbury. 
Rochester. 
London. 
Dunwich. 
Elanham. 
Winchester. 
Sherborne. 
Crediton  ^ 
Wells  I  J 
Ramsbury  l 
Cornwall  .' 
Lichfield. 
Hereford. 
Worcester. 

Lindsey  (Lidnacester). 
I  Leicester,  removed  to  Dorchester 
'     about  870. 

Selsey. 

York. 

Lindisfarne. 

Hexham. 

Witherae. 


ERRATUM. 
Page  57,  line  15, /f?'  "Egfrid"  read  "Egbert.'' 


THE  HEPTARCHIC  CHURCHES  57 


In  the  eighth  century  the  Northumhrian  Church  was 
foremost  in  the  introduction  and  cultivation  of  the 
learning  and  fine  arts  which  formed  part  of  the  Christian 
civihsation  of  the  Continent.  Benedict  Biscop,  a  young 
man  of  noble  birth  and  considerable  wealth,  brought 
masons  from  France  to  build  for  him  a  monastery  at 
Wearmouth,  and  afterwards  built  a  second  monastery  at 
Jarrow,  on  the  Continental  model,  and  made  several 
journeys  to  France  and  Italy  as  far  as  Rome,  collecting 
both  paintings  and  works  of  art  for  the  enrichment  of 
his  foundations.  The  monasteries  of  Wilfrid  at  Ripon 
and  Hexham  were  similar  centres  of  religious  learning 
and  art. 

At  Jarrow  Bede  gathered  the  learning  which  gave  him 
a  European  reputation.  A  little  later,  Egfrid,  a  man 
of  royal  birth,  when  made  Bishop  of  York  (732  a.d.), 
gathered  learned  men  around  him,  and  accumulated 
what  was  for  the  time  a  great  library,  and  made  the 
schools  of  York  famous  throughout  Europe.  Alcuin,  the 
master  of  this  school,  was  induced  by  Charles  the  Great 
to  undertake  the  duty  of  elevating  the  learning  of  his 
empire.  York  continued  to  be  a  great  centre  of  religion 
and  learning  till  the  invasion  of  the  Danes  at  the  close 
of  the  century. 

At  the  same  time  Aldhelm,  a  scion  of  the  royal  family 
of  Wessex,  and  a  pupil  of  Theodore  and  Hadrian,  made 
Bishop  of  Sherborne  in  705  a.d.,  raised  up  a  school  of 
learned  men  in  Wessex,  and  made  it  for  the  first  half  of 
the  century  the  rival  of  the  school  of  York.  From  one 
of  the  monasteries  of  his  foundation,  at  Nutscelle  in 
Hampshire,  went  forth  Winifrid,  afterwards  known  as 
Boniface,  with  a  company  of  monks  to  be  the  Apostle 
of  Germany.    At  Bradford-on-Avon  has  recently  been 


58    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


brought  to  liglit  a  very  interesting  Romanesque  church, 
perfect  and  unaltered,  which  is  probably  the  original 
church  of  the  abbey  founded  there  by  Aldhelm  in 
705  A.D. 

In  the  eighth  century  the  political  power  of  Mercia 
grew  under  three  bold  and  enterprising  kings,  ^thelbald, 
Offa,  and  Cenwulf  (716-819).  Offa  pushed  back  the 
Welsh  within  the  limit  marked  by  "OfTa's  dyke,"  and 
brought  all  the  smaller  kingdoms  of  the  south,  Sussex, 
Kent,  Essex,  and  East  Anglia,  more  or  less  completely 
under  his  power. 

He  seems  to  have  thought  it  became  his  dignity  to 
follow  the  example  set  by  Northumbria,  and  to  obtain 
for  his  kingdom  the  dignity  of  being  a  separate  eccle- 
siastical province,  and  applied  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
for  the  honour  of  the  pall  for  his  chief  bishop.  The 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was  too  much  in  his  power  to 
offer  any  resistance.  A  council  was  held  at  Cealchythe, 
783  A.D.,  attended  by  two  legates  from  Rome,  who,  how- 
ever, took  no  ostensible  part  in  the  proceedings,  the 
council  consented  to  the  arrangement  desired  by  the  king, 
and  the  dioceses  of  Mercia  were  constituted  a  separate 
province  with  Lichfield  for  its  metropolitan  see.  After 
Offa's  death,  however,  a  council  at  Cloveshoe,  803  a.d., 
restored  the  ancient  arrangement  without  opposition 
from  the  Mercian  bishops. 

In  the  ninth  century  Wessex  obtained  the  supremacy 
over  the  other  kingdoms.  Ecgbert  returned  from  exile 
(802  A.D.),  having  learned  the  arts  of  war  and  govern- 
ment at  the  court  of  Charles  the  Great.  Before  he  died 
in  839  A.D.,  he  had  made  himself  overlord  of  all  the 
other  kingdoms ;  over  Kent,  Sussex,  and  Essex  he 
had  appointed  sub-kings  of  his  own  family;  Mercia, 


THE  HEPTARCHIC  CHURCHES  59 


Northumbria,  and  East  Anglia  retained  their  native 
princes,  but  subject  to  the  supreme  authority  of  Ecgbert. 
This  authority  was  so  firmly  established  that  it  descended 
to  his  successors,  so  that  Ecgbert  is  rightly  accounted 
the  first  king  of  England, 


CHAPTER  VIII 


FROM  THE  DANISH  INVASIONS  TO  THE 
NORMAN  CONQUEST 

About  the  end  of  the  eighth  century  history  partially 
repeated  itself  in  a  new  series  of  barbarian  invasions,  in 
which  for  a  century  the  English  suffered  at  the  hands 
of  the  Danes  the  miseries  which  their  ancestors  had 
inflicted  upon  the  Romano-Britons.  At  first  armies  of 
the  Danes,  landing  upon  various  parts  of  the  coast, 
marched  inland,  harried  the  country,  and  retired  with 
their  booty  ;  then  they  began  to  make  permanent  settle- 
ments. They  seized  East  Anglia,  separated  from  the 
rest  of  the  country  by  rivers  and  fens,  and  made  it  a 
Danish  colony ;  they  made  themselves  masters  of  the 
towns  of  the  midlands,  and  from  them  ruled  the  country 
round  about ;  at  length  the  victories  of  Guthrum  in 
Wessex  left  no  English  opponents  of  the  Danish  rule 
in  the  field. 

No  sentiment  of  religion  restrained  the  heathen  in- 
vaders from  assailing  the  Church,  and  the  wealth  of  the 
monasteries  and  great  churches  made  them  special  objects 
of  attack.  The  monasteries  of  Northumbria,  Lindis- 
farne,  Whitby,  Coldingham,  Wearmouth,  and  Jarrow, 
Ripon,  Hexham,  and  York,  the  great  religious  houses 
of  the  Fen  country,  Peterborough,  Crowland,  Ramsey, 
Thorney,  and  Ely,  were  plundered  and  left  in  ruins. 


DANISH  INVASIONS  TO  NORMAN  CONQUEST  61 


Learning  died  out  from  among  the  oppressed  people. 
It  seemed  as  if  the  English  rule  was  about  to  pass  away 
as  the  Roman  had  done,  and  Scandinavian  rule  to  take 
its  place,  and  the  old  heathendom  to  revive. 

It  is  the  glory  of  Alfred  (871-901  a.d.)  that  he 
rescued  the  English  monarchy  from  extinction  and  the 
English  race  from  its  misery.  Issuing  from  his  retreat 
amidst  the  marshes  of  the  Parret,  he  inflicted  a  great 
defeat  uponGuthrum  at  Ethandun  (Edington,  878  A.D.), 
and  dictated  peace  on  the  conditions  that  he  and  his 
Danes  should  receive  baptism,  and  should  retire  from 
Wessex  and  its  dependencies,  Sussex,  Kent,  and  the 
western  half  of  Mercia,  holding  the  rest  of  England  in 
(nominal)  subjection  to  Alfred.  The  work  which  yElfred 
the  Great  had  begun  was  continued  by  a  succession  of 
able  kings,  his  son  and  grandsons,  Eadward  the  Un- 
conquered,  ^thelstan  the  Illustrious,  Eadmund  the 
Magnificent,  Eadred  the  Excellent,  and  Eadgar  the 
Peaceful ;  by  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century  the  whole 
country  had  been  won  back  under  English  rule  and 
the  Danish  settlers  thoroughly  amalgamated  with  the 
native  English,  so  that  the  distinction  between  the  men 
of  kindred  races  soon  disappeared. 

As  soon  as  Alfred  had  won  peace  he  proceeded  at  once 
to  revive  learning  and  religion.  His  own  account  of 
the  condition  to  which  the  country  had  been  brought 
is  as  follows  :  "There  was  a  time  when  foreigners  sought 
wisdom  and  learning  in  this  island,  now  we  are  com- 
pelled to  seek  them  in  foreign  lands."  "  Few  on  this 
side  Humber,  and  I  dare  say  not  many  on  the  other, 
could  understand  the  service  in  English  or  translate 
a  Latin  epistle  into  tlieir  own  language.  So  few  were 
they,  that  I  do  not  recollect  a  single  individual  to  the 
south  of  Thames  who  was  able  to  do  it  when  I  ascended 


62   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


the  throne."  When  Alfred  founded  a  monastery  at 
Athelney  in  thanksgiving  for  his  victory  there,  he  had 
to  bring  monks  from  France  to  fill  it ;  none  of  his  own 
subjects  were,  or  were  wiUing  to  become,  monks ;  from 
the  destruction  of  the  monasteries  by  the  Danes  till 
their  revival  in  the  time  of  Dunstan,  nobody  observed 
monastic  rule ;  those  who  had  the  vocation  went  to 
foreign  monasteries,  or  lived  as  hermits  in  the  ruins  of 
the  old  monasteries.  The  revival  of  convents  of  women 
was  more  successful.  Alfred  founded  Shaftesbury  and 
placed  it  under  his  daughter  Ethelgeove,  and  in  the 
succeeding  reigns  others  were  founded. 

The  king  sought  for  learned  men  in  other  countries. 
Presbyter  John  and  Provost  Grimbald  from  France, 
Asser  from  St.  Davids,  helped  the  king  to  found  a 
Palatine  school  at  his  court,  to  which  he  intrusted  his  son, 
and  he  wished  his  thanes  to  do  the  same,  and  "added 
a  number  of  children  from  the  lower  classes."  But 
the  school  does  not  seem  to  have  survived  him ;  war 
engaged  men's  energies ;  education  languished  till,  under 
Eadger,  it  received  a  new  impulse  from  Dunstan  and  his 
colleagues. 

Eadger  (959-975  a.d.)  was  an  able  and  powerful 
king,  and  Dunstan  was  the  king's  closest  friend  and 
chief  adviser.  When  Dunstan  was  made  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  he  consecrated  ^Ifstan  to  London  and 
Oswald  to  Worcester.  These  three  prelates  were  the 
great  movers  in  the  revival  of  religion,  learning,  and  the 
arts  which  distinguished  the  reign  of  Eadger.  They 
adopted  the  policy  of  restoring  the  discipline  and 
vitality  of  the  monasteries,  as  the  best  agencies  for 
recovering  the  country  from  the  ignorance  and  irre- 
ligion  which  had  been  brought  upon  it  by  the  Danish 
wars.    They  rebuilt  and  restored  the  great  monasteries 


DANISH  INVASIONS  TO  NORMAN  CONQUEST  63 


of  the  east — Peterborough,  Ely,  Ramsey,  and  Thorney; 
they  restored  the  other  monasteries  up  and  down  the 
south  and  midland  districts,  establishing  in  them  the 
Benedictine  rule.  These  reforms  caused  a  great  out- 
cry, and  very  likely  many  cases  of  hardship  occurred 
in  the  replacement  of  married  abbots  and  clerks  and 
monks,  and  the  enforcement  of  the  strict  Benedictine 
discipline.  ^4ithelwold  especially  seems  to  have  acted 
arbitrarily  in  turning  out  the  secular  canons  from  his 
cathedral  of  Winchester  to  replace  them  by  monks. 
Oswald  contented  himself  with  leaving  the  secular 
canons  in  possession  of  Worcester  Cathedral  and 
transferring  his  episcopal  chair  to  the  neighbouring 
monastery.  Dunstan  made  no  change  at  Canterbury  (it 
was  ^Ifric  in  1003  who  introduced  the  monks  into  that 
cathedral);  all  the  other  cathedrals  remained  in  the  pos- 
session of  secular  canons  till  the  end  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
period.  Dunstan  is  the  first  English  example  of  the 
great  ecclesiastic  called  to  fulfil  the  duties  of  a  great 
minister,  which  was  so  common  in  after  ages.  And  the 
reigns  in  which  Dunstan  was  the  royal  adviser  were  suc- 
cessful reigns  ;  the  country  had  peace  and  grew  in  pros- 
perity ;  religion  revived,  and  learning  and  the  arts  began 
to  be  successfully  cultivated  in  the  monastic  schools. 
The  misrule  and  misery  which  followed  after  his  death 
helped  by  contrast  to  bring  into  greater  prominence  the 
prosperity  of  the  thirty  years  of  Dunstan's  influence, 
and  to  make  him  the  popular  saint  of  the  mother 
church  of  Canterbury,  till  his  memory  was  eclipsed  by 
the  more  tragic  interest  which  made  St.  Thomas  illus- 
trious as  the  martyr-defender  of  the  immunities  of  the 
Church. 

Eadger  died  leaving  two  boys.  Edward  the  Martyr 
was  murdered  after  a  reign  of  four  years,  and  was  sue- 


64    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH 'OF  ENGLAND 


ceeded  by  ^thelred  the  Unready  (without  counsel). 
Early  in  his  reign  new  swarms  of  Danes  and  Norwegians 
began  to  make  descents  upon  the  country.  In  1012 
they  murdered  ^Iphea  (St.  Alphage),  now  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  on  his  refusal  to  burden  his  people  with 
the  price  of  the  ransom  demanded  of  him.  In  1013 
Sweyn  came  with  a  great  army,  the  country  submitted 
to  him,  and  ^thelred  fled  to  Normandy.  On  the  death 
of  the  two  kings,  their  sons,  Canute  and  Edmund  Iron- 
side, succeeded  to  their  father's  claims,  and,  after  much 
fighting,  agreed  to  divide  the  kingdom  for  their  lifetime, 
with  succession  to  the  survivor.  Edmund  died  in  1016, 
and  Canute  the  Dane  remained  king  of  Denmark  and  of 
England.  He  ruled  justly  and  wisely,  and  endeavoured 
to  promote  the  prosperity  and  revive  the  religion  of 
England  ;  he  restored  ail  the  holy  places  which  had 
in  any  way  suffered  during  his  own  and  his  father's  wars, 
from  Glastonbury  to  St.  Edmundsbury,  founded  new 
churches,  and  was  a  munificent  benefactor  to  the 
Church.  In  1027  (?)  he  made  the  pilgrimage  to  Rome. 
On  his  death  his  son  Horthacanute  brought  over  a  force 
of  Danes  and  began  to  rule  England  as  a  conquered 
land  ;  on  his  death  in  1042,  the  English  invited  Eadward, 
the  son  of  .^thelred,  the  representative  of  their  old  kings, 
to  resume  the  throne  of  his  fathers. 

The  Saxons  were  skilful  in  some  of  the  arts ;  their 
MSS.  were  magnificent  specimens  of  writing  in  large, 
bold,  perfectly  formed  letters,  ornamented  in  a  peculiar 
style  of  interlaced  ribbon-work,  which  probably  came 
from  the  East,  since  there  are  examples  of  it  in  Syria, 
Greece,  and  Italy,  but  it  is  found  in  its  greatest  profusion 
and  perfection  in  the  MSS.  and  stone  monuments  of  the 
Celtic  and  Northumbrian  schools  ;  their  embroidery  was 
famous  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  island ;  they  seem  to 


DANISH  INVASIONS  TO  NORMAN  CONQUEST  65 


have  practised  the  art  of  enamelling  before  it  was  used 
in  the  other  European  countries ;  but  in  all  their  early 
works,  the  attempts  at  representing  the  human  figure  are 
childishly  ignorant  and  rude.  The  revival  of  learning 
under  Dunstan  and  his  colleagues  was  accompanied  by 
a  revival  of  art.  Dunstan  himself  was  famous  for  his 
artistic  skill.  The  Benedictional  of  St.  Ethelwold,  in 
the  library  of  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  is  a  magnificent 
example  of  the  illuminator's  work,  and  the  numerous 
figures  of  saints  and  angels  show  the  influence  of  the 
finest  Byzantine  art ;  the  Psalter  of  ^thelstan,  of  a  little 
later  date,  shows  the  growing  influence  of  a  classical 
revival.  Of  their  architecture  we  know  little.  The  re- 
cently discovered  church  at  Bradwell  is  of  hewn  stone 
in  Romanesque  style,  very  interesting  archseologically, 
but  not  a  fine  example  of  design.  Not  a  single  Saxon 
cathedral  remains,  and  the  fact  that  the  first  Norman 
bishops  everywhere  without  exception  built  new  ones 
seems  to  indicate  that  there  was  nothing  of  them  worth 
preserving.  (The  East  Anglian  cathedral  at  Elmham 
was  of  timber.) 

For  a  long  time  past  England  had  had  little  inter- 
course of  any  kind  with  the  Continent  of  Europe,  and 
its  intellectual  and  religious  life  had  not  been  much 
affected  by  the  currents  of  Continental  thought  and  feel- 
ing ;  neither  had  it  developed  any  novelties  of  its  own. 
It  had  maintained  its  constitution  in  Church  and  State; 
in  doctrine,  discipline,  and  ritual  the  Enghsh  Church  had 
retained  the  traditions  of  its  seventh-century  founders.  It 
was  credulous  about  miracles  and  dreams  and  visions, 
and  superstitious  about  relics;  it  believed  in  the  pur- 
gatory of  which  Gregory  the  Great  had  been  the  first 
great  exponent;  but  the  theory  of  transubstantiation, 
by  which  the  schoolmen  had  recently  tried  to  explain 

s.  T.  E 


66    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


the  mystery  of  the  Sacrament  in  terms  of  a  philosophy 
which  is  now  exploded,  had  not  reached  the  English 
mind ;  and  there  had  been  no  attempt  as  yet  to  extend 
to  England  the  Papal  supremacy,  which  was  rapidly 
reducing  the  Continental  churches  to  the  Roman 
obedience. 

With  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Confessor  begins  a  new 
period  in  the  history  of  the  Church  of  England.  His 
father,  Ethelred,  had  married  Emma,  sister  of  Richard 
Duke  of  Normandy,  and  Edward  had  been  brought  up 
at  the  Norman  court,  and,  when  called  to  the  throne  of 
England  in  1042  at  the  age  of  forty,  he  brought  with  him 
his  Norman  ideas.  England,  so  long  depressed  by  the 
Danish  wars,  was  behind  Normandy  in  civilisation,  and 
Edward  was  no  doubt  influenced  by  the  highest  politic 
motives  as  well  as  by  his  personal  predilections  in  filling 
his  court  with  Normans  and  placing  them  in  high 
offices. 

In  order  to  understand  the  change  in  the  relations  of 
the  Church  of  England  to  the  See  of  Rome  which  began 
under  Edward  the  Confessor,  it  is  necessary  to  introduce 
here  a  digression  on  the  recent  history  of  the  Roman 
Church. 

The  peaceful  revolution  which  placed  Pepin  and  his 
descendants  on  the  throne  of  the  Franks  in  place  of 
the  effete  Merovingian  dynasty,  owed  something  of  its 
success,  and  the  new  dynasty  owed  much  of  its  prestige, 
to  the  moral  sanction  which  the  Pope  of  the  time  gave 
to  the  transaction.  Very  shortly  after  the  new  king  of 
the  Franks  made  a  royal  payment  for  the  service  which 
Zacharias  had  done  him  by  driving  the  Lombards  out 
of  the  Exarchate  of  Ravenna  and  bestowing  it  upon  the 
See  of  Rome  (755  a.d.).  This  was  the  beginning  of 
the  Temporal  Power  of  the  Popes.    For  a  time  they 


DANISH  INVASIONS  TO  NORMAN  CONQUEST  67 


held  the  new  acquisition  as  a  fief  of  the  Fraiikish 
crown,  but  when  the  great  feudatories  of  the  Empire 
took  advantage  of  the  weakness  of  Charles's  successors 
to  assume  independent  sovereignty,  the  Popes  also  got 
rid  of  their  subjection  and  ruled  as  sovereign  princes. 
This  aggrandisement  of  the  See  carried  with  it  its  dis- 
advantages. 

In  tiie  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  owing  to  the  growth 
of  population,  the  cultivation  of  wild  lands,  and  the  con- 
sequent increase  of  wealth,  many  of  the  great  European 
Sees  had  become  very  wealthy,  and  the  feudal  rights  of 
bishops  and  abbots  over  their  own  domains  had  raised 
them  to  the  dignity  of  great  feudal  lords.  The  result  was 
that  where  princes  nominated  to  these  great  benefices, 
they  often  conferred  them  upon  their  own  relations,  or 
bestowed  them  as  rewards  of  service  or  gifts  of  favour, 
or  sold  them  to  the  highest  bidder ;  where  these  great 
benefices  were  the  subject  of  election,  they  became  the 
objects  of  intrigue  and  bribery,  and  often  a  great  family 
in  the  neighbourhood  studied  to  obtain  such  a  prepon- 
derating influence  with  the  electoral  body  as  would  place 
the  benefice  at  their  disposal. 

The  men  thus  appointed  to  the  great  benefices  of 
the  Church  had  often  no  true  vocation  for  holy  orders, 
and  neglected  the  duties  of  their  ofiice ;  their  neglect 
and  bad  example  affected  the  character  of  the  lower 
clergy  and  of  the  laity;  learning  grew  scarce  and  dis- 
cipline lax  among  the  clergy;  the  laity  grew  up  ignorant 
and  irreligious. 

The  Roman  See  was  the  greatest  prize  of  the  Church, 
and  its  jiossession  was  the  great  object  of  rival  factions 
of  the  Italian  nobles.  Its  history  during  this  period 
affords  the  most  horrible  example  of  the  corruption  into 
which  the  Church  had  fallen.     Baronius,  one  of  the 


68    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


great  Papal  historians,  is  obliged  to  admit  that  during 
this  period  fifty  Popes  succeeded  one  another  "  of  whom 
many  secured  possession  of  the  See  by  fraud  or  money,  or 
by  worse  expedients,"  i.e.,  by  murder ;  and  many  of  them 
lived  lives  of  open  and  extreme  profligacy.  This  con- 
dition of  the  Church  had  caused  great  discontent  and 
not  a  little  disaffection  among  the  people.  At  the  end 
of  the  tenth  century  there  was  a  desire  for  a  reform  of 
abuses,  and  any  movement  in  this  direction  was  sure 
of  strong  popular  sympathy.  This  movement  sprang  up 
in  Rome  itself.  Hildebrand,  an  Italian  monk  of  the 
new  order  of  Clugny,  was  tiie  soul  of  it,  and  a  series 
of  Popes  were  the  chief  agents  of  a  great  reformation. 
Hildebrand  had  come  into  contact  with  Pope  Leo  IX. 
at  the  very  beginning  of  his  reign,  obtained  his  con- 
fidence and  became  his  trusted  adviser,  not  only  his, 
but  that  of  his  four  successors,  and  he  himself  succeeded 
after  them,  so  that  Hildebrand  was  the  soul  of  the  Papacy 
during  six  reigns,  from  1049  to  io8S-  Hildebrand's 
theory  was  that  the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  a  kmd  of 
spiritual  emperor,  and  all  baptized  Christians  his  sub- 
jects, and  that  he  had  by  divine  right  supreme  authority 
not  only  over  prelates,  but  over  princes. 

Leo  adopted  the  novel  method  of  making  a  personal 
visitation  of  the  churches,  holding  councils  at  important 
centres  for  the  correction  of  abuses.  In  Italy  no  one 
objected  to  his  authority;  in  Germany  he  had  the  sup- 
port of  the  Emperor,  his  cousin  ;  iiis  visitation  of  France 
was  an  invasion  of  the  rights  of  the  French  king  and 
Church,  but  public  opinion  was  strongly  on  the  side  of 
the  reforming  Pope ;  the  king  did  not  venture  to  oppose 
him,  and  the  clergy  submitted  to  him.  This  bold 
measure  gave  a  great  impulse  to  the  work  of  reform, 
and  greatly  increased  the  prestige  of  the  Papal  See ;  for 


DANISH  INVASIONS  TO  NORMAN  CONQUEST  69 


the  general  submission  established  the  claim  of  the  Pope 
to  be  the  corrector  of  abuses  in  the  churches  and  the 
censor  of  morals  of  the  whole  body  of  the  faithful.  Primi- 
tive discipline  was  restored  in  the  monastic  orders  ;  new 
orders  with  a  stricter  rule  were  founded.  As  sees  and 
benefices  fell  vacant,  many  of  them  were  refilled  with 
men  of  the  new  school,  and  a  very  general  revival  of 
religion  was  in  progress  throughout  the  Continent  of 
Europe. 

England  was  outside  the  sphere  of  the  Popes'  re- 
forms, and  its  isolation  put  it  almost  beyond  the  reach 
of  their  influence ;  indeed,  the  domestic  troubles  in 
which  the  country  had  been  so  long  involved  had  saved 
it  from  the  worst  abuses  which  have  been  described. 

King  Edward  was  of  somewhat  feeble  character, 
whose  principal  trait  was  a  piety  entirely  in  harmony 
with  the  new  school,  and  carried  to  fanatical  extremes. 
He  was  a  vowed  celibate  notwithstanding  his  politic 
marriage  of  Earl  Godwin's  daughter  ;  he  thought  that 
he  saw  visions  and  received  miraculous  intimations ; 
he  believed  that  his  touch  cured  the  "  king's  evil ; " 
he  vowed  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  built 
Westminster  Abbey  as  the  price  of  absolution  from  his 
vow.  He  recognised  tiie  backwardness  of  the  English 
Church,  and  thought  that  the  best  way  to  improve  it 
was  by  introducing  eminent  foreigners  of  the  new 
school  into  its  higher  offices  as  ojjpoitunity  should 
occur.  Accordingly,  on  the  vacancy  of  the  See  of 
London  in  1044  a.d.,  Edward  nominated  Robert  of 
Jumieges,  who  obtained  great  influence  over  the  king's 
mind.  In  the  next  year,  1045,  he  nominated  Herman 
of  Lotharingia  to  Ramsbury ;  Ulf,  a  Norman,  to  Dor- 
chester in  1049 ;  Leofric  to  Exeter  in  1050  ;  and  in  105 1, 


70    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

refusing  the  Saxon  priest  preferred  by  the  Witan,  the 
king  promoted  Robert  of  Jumieges  to  the  See  of  Can- 
terbury, and  passed  over  another  Saxon  nominated  to 
London  in  favour  of  William,  a  Norman  ;  and  in  1061  he 
nominated  Giso,  a  Lorrainer,  to  Wells.  But  the  king's 
fondness  for  foreigners  was  offensive  to  the  popular 
patriotism,  it  threatened  to  undermine  the  political 
power  which  Earl  Godwin  and  his  family  had  ob- 
tained in  the  country,  and  led  to  a  revolt  before  which 
the  Norman  favourites  fled.  Godwin  and  his  family 
were  banished  for  their  share  in  this  revolt,  but  re- 
turned in  a  few  months,  and  the  king  found  himself 
unable  to  resist  their  reinstatement.  The  same  Witan 
which  restored  Godwin  declared  Robert  of  Canterbury 
and  Ulf  of  Dorchester  outlawed,  but  allowed  William 
to  retain  the  See  of  London  on  account  of  his  good 
character;  the  same  Witan  promoted  Stigand,  the 
ecclesiastical  adviser  of  Cnut  and  Godwin,  to  the  See 
of  Canterbury.  Stigand's  position  was,  however,  a 
doubtful  one  even  in  the  estimation  of  his  friends. 
Robert  of  Jumieges  still  claimed  the  See  and  filled  the 
courts  of  Europe  with  the  story  of  his  wrongs.  There 
were  at  the  time  two  claimants  of  the  Papal  See,  and 
Stigand  continued  six  years  without  seeking  the  recogni- 
tion of  either  of  them,  wearing,  it  was  said,  the  pall  of 
his  predecessor,  until  at  last  he  received  his  pall  irom 
Honorius,  the  Anti-Pope.  Some  of  the  new  bishops 
elected  in  his  time,  viz.,  Giso  of  Wells  and  Walter  of 
Hereford,  declined  to  receive  consecration  from  him,  and 
went  to  Rome  and  were  consecrated  by  the  Pope.  So 
that  the  influence  of  the  new  school  of  religious  thought 
was  being  introduced  into  England  by  King  Edward 
and  his  foreign   bishops.    The  English  Church  was 


DANISH  INVASIONS  TO  NORMAN  CONQUEST  71 


entering  into  an  intercourse  with  the  Continental  Church 
greater  than  at  any  period  since  Romano-British  times, 
and  the  way  was  being  prepared  for  the  inclusion  of  the 
Church  of  England  within  the  patriarchate  of  the  Roman 
See,  which  William  formally  carried  into  effect. 


CHAPTER  IX 


THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  PAPAL  SUPREMACY 
OVER  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH 

It  is  not  necessary  even  to  summarise  here  a  portion 
of  English  history  so  familiar  as  the  Norman  Conquest; 
its  effect  upon  the  Church  of  England  is  what  this 
history  is  especially  concerned  with. 

Normandy  was  within  the  patriarchate  of  Rome. 
William  had  submitted  to  the  Pope's  censure  of  his 
marriage  within  the  forbidden  degrees,  and  had  built 
two  abbeys  at  Caen  as  the  price  of  the  Papal  dispensa- 
tion. He  was  under  especial  obligation  to  the  Roman 
See,  for  the  Pope  had  sanctioned  his  invasion  of  England 
as  a  holy  war,  and  the  battle  of  Senlac  was  fought  under 
a  banner  which  the  Pope  had  blessed. 

The  Conquest  brought  England  for  the  first  time  into 
the  family  of  the  European  nations,  and  the  Conqueror 
would  take  its  inclusion  into  the  Western  Patriarchate 
as  a  necessary  consequence.  He  had  occasion  to  seek 
at  once  for  the  Pope's  intervention  in  the  affairs  of  the 
English  Church.  The  position  of  Archbishop  Stigand, 
as  has  been  stated,  was  one  of  doubtful  legality,  and 
was  likely  to  lead  to  great  difficulties.  Besides,  both 
King  and  Pope  had  their  own  reasons  for  desiring  to 
be  rid  of  him.  That  Stigand  had  recognised  the  Anti- 
Pope  Honorius,  and  received  his  pall  from  him,  was 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  73 


to  the  Pope  sufficient  reason  for  disliking  and  excuse 
for  deposing  him.  The  king  had  still  better  reasons. 
Stigand  had  been  for  many  years  the  chaplain  of 
Godwin,  the  partisan  of  his  house,  and  one  of  the  chief 
leaders  of  the  anti-Norman  party.  It  was  by  the  influ- 
ence of  the  house  of  Godwin  that  he  had  been  made 
archbishop ;  and  he  had  crowned  Harold.  His  prompt 
submission  after  the  battle  of  Senlac,  and  the  service 
he  had  rendered  in  inducing  the  English  to  accept  the 
Conqueror  as  their  king,  did  not  save  him.  But  what 
native  tribunal  could  try  the  archbishop  ?  It  was  pre- 
cisely the  kind  of  extraordinary  case  which  might  justify, 
if  anything  could,  an  appeal  to  a  foreign  authority,  and 
William  invited  the  Pope  to  send  two  legates  to  deal  with 
it.  It  was  not  the  king's  policy,  however,  to  bring  back 
Robert  of  Jumieges,  so  the  charges  against  Stigand 
omitted  the  question  of  the  validity  of  Stigand's  appoint- 
ment while  Robert  was  still  living,  and  rested  upon  the 
rather  inadequate  charges  of  having  recognised  the  Anti- 
Pope  and  received  his  pall  from  him,  and  of  having  held 
the  See  of  Winchester  in  commendam  with  that  of 
Canterbury.  On  these  grounds  a  synod  held  at  Win- 
chester (1070)  under  the  presidency  of  the  two  legates 
deposed  the  archbishop,  and  he  was  committed  to 
prison,  in  which  soon  afterwards  he  miserably  perished. 
His  deposition  involved  that  of  his  brother,  ^thelmar, 
Bishop  of  Elmham,  and  of  ^thelric.  Bishop  of  Selsey, 
on  the  ground  that  their  consecration  by  Stigand  was 
invalid.  Circumstances  favoured  the  desire  of  the  king 
to  have  the  sees  occupied  by  men  who  would  be  loyal 
to  himself  The  Bishop  of  Durham  had  incurred  the 
penalties  of  treason  ;  York  and  Lichfield  were  vacant  by 
death ;  London,  Hereford,  Wells,  Ramsbury,  Exeter 
had  been  filled  up  by  foreigners  of  the  Confessor's 


74    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


appointment ;  the  Norman  Remigius  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  Dorchester  since  the  battle  of  Senlac.  The 
vacancies  were  filled  by  the  Conqueror ;  the  two  remain- 
in,'  sees,  Worcester  and  Rochester,  were  allowed  to 
retain  their  native  bishops.  Many  of  the  greater  abbots 
were  deprived  and  Normans  put  in  their  places.  It  is 
right  to  say  that  William's  nominees  to  the  sees  were  all 
able  men,  some  of  them  learned  and  pious.  For  though 
the  Conqueror  was  ambitious,  stern,  relentless,  there 
was  a  strain  of  righteousness  in  his  character;  he  was 
not  only  a  great  captain,  but  a  great  statesman,  and  he 
desired  the  welfare  of  the  country  of  which  he  had 
made  himself  king ;  and  though  he  made  no  great  pro- 
fessions of  religion,  his  ecclesiastical  policy  was  directed 
to  the  promotion  of  learning  and  religion. 

The  minister  of  his  ecclesiastical  policy  was  Lan- 
FRANC,  late  abbot  of  William's  monastery  at  Caen, 
whom  he  nominated  to  the  See  of  Canterbury.  It 
was  a  good  appointment  both  for  the  king  and  the 
Church.  The  new  archbishop  had  obtained  his  reputa- 
tion as  a  scholar  and  theologian,  but  he  was  also  a  man 
of  strong  sense  and  practical  ability,  such  as  the  office 
and  the  time  required.  Prepared  to  accept  the  visita- 
torial office  of  the  See  of  Rome  over  the  English  Church, 
but  equally  resolute  not  to  admit  any  undue  exercise 
of  the  power,  he  did  not  go  in  person  to  Rome  for 
the  pall;  when  Gregory  VII.  invited  him  to  visit  Rome 
as  an  act  of  deference  to  the  See,  he  declined,  and  when 
the  Pope  finally  summoned  him  with  threats,  he  ignored 
the  summons. 

In  settling  the  relations  between  the  English  Church 
and  the  See  of  Rome,  William  took  up  a  clear  and  firm 
position.  While  bringing  the  English  Church  into  the 
organised  ecclesiastical  system  of  the  Western  Patri- 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  75 


archate,  and  recognising  the  general  visitatorial  autho- 
rity of  the  Roman  See,  he  stringently  safeguarded  the 
rights  of  the  English  crown  and  Church.  He  laid  it 
down  that  no  legate  should  visit  England  or  any  bull 
be  received  into  the  country  without  the  license  of  the 
crown ;  on  the  other  hand,  that  no  appeal  should 
be  made  from  England  to  the  Roman  See  without  his 
leave ;  so  that  the  interference  of  the  Pope  was  limited 
to  emergencies  worthy  of  so  great  an  authority,  and  of 
what  constituted  such  an  emergency  the  crown  was  the 
judge  in  each  particular  case. 

In  regulating  the  affairs  of  England,  the  king  also 
made  an  alteration  in  the  relations  which  had  hitherto 
existed  between  the  Church  and  the  State.  The  rela- 
tions between  the  Church  and  the  State  in  Saxon  times 
had  grown  up  out  of  the  facts  of  the  case.  The  mission 
bishops  who  converted  the  Saxons  were  most  of  them 
men  of  a  superior  type  of  civilisation  to  the  rude  people 
among  whom  they  lived,  and  introduced  among  them 
higher  ideas  of  law  and  administration  and  the  arts  of 
life,  as  well  as  of  learning  and  religion.  The  first  codes 
of  law  of  some  of  the  kingdoms,  if  not  of  all  of  them,  were 
made  under  the  advice  of  their  bishops.  The  bishops 
and  chief  clergy  sat  habitually  in  the  witenagemots ; 
they  assisted  also  in  the  administration  of  affairs, 
the  bishop  sitting  with  shire-reeve  and  ealdorman  in 
the  shire-moot  to  do  justice  in  all  cases,  secular  and 
ecclesiastical,  which  came  before  them ;  and  the  parish 
priests  presided  in  the  meetings  of  the  township  for  the 
regulation  of  its  local  affairs.  The  relations  of  Church 
and  State  were  very  intimate  ;  no  attempt  had  been  made 
to  discriminate  their  several  spheres ;  it  was  enough  that 
they  worked  satisfactorily.  No  doubt  this  old  constitu- 
tion was  rude  and  unscientific,  and  the  king  undertook 


76    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


to  amend  it.  By  a  charter  (probably  of  1086  a.d.)  he 
decreed  that  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  jurisdictions 
should  be  divided,  and  that  henceforth  no  bishop  or 
archdeacon  should  hold  pleas  concerning  ecclesiastical 
matters  in  the  hundred  court,  and  that  no  cause  re- 
lating to  the  cure  of  souls  should  be  brought  before  a 
secular  judge ;  but  that  every  person  summoned  in  an 
ecclesiastical  cause  or  charge  should  appear  before  the 
bishop  wherever  he  should  appoint,  and  there  answer, 
not  according  to  the  hundred  law,  but  according  to  the 
canons  and  ecclesiastical  laws ;  and  if  any  should  refuse 
to  appear  or  to  obey  the  bishop's  judgment,  the  sherifif 
of  the  county  should  bring  him  to  reason ;  but  that  no 
sheriff,  magistrate,  or  king's  ofificer  should  meddle  with 
laws  belonging  to  the  bishop.  The  king  also  decreed 
that  the  clergy  in  their  synods,  no  longer  attended  by 
king  and  nobles,  should  make  no  new  laws  without  the 
king's  assent ;  and  that  sentence  of  excommunication 
should  not  be  passed  upon  tenants  in  capite  without  the 
king's  license. 

The  necessary  consequence  was  the  organisation  of 
ecclesiastical  courts.  Every  bishop  had  to  make 
arrangements  for  dealing  with  the  cases  which  were  thus 
brought  before  him.  The  bishop  could  not  devote 
sufficient  time  to  it,  and  was  obliged  to  commission 
officials  to  represent  and  act  for  him.  Persons  learned 
in  ecclesiastical  law  were  needed  to  conduct  the  causes 
of  those  who  came  before  these  courts,  and,  in  short, 
all  the  machinery  of  a  system  for  the  administration 
of  this  new  judicature  had  to  be  created.  The  eccle- 
siastical courts  had  jurisdiction  over  all  the  clergy, 
and  the  various  orders  of  the  clergy  included  a  very 
large  number  of  persons,  nearly  all  persons  of  any 
education ;  so  that,  till  a  very  recent  period,  the  fact  of 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  77 


being  able  to  read  was  accepted  as  evidence  that  a  man 
belonged  to  the  clergy,  and  entitled  him  to  the  privilege 
of  clergy,  that  is,  exempted  him  from  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  civil  courts.  The  ecclesiastical  courts  took 
cognisance  of  all  that  belonged  to  the  clergy  in  their 
daily  life  and  conduct  as  well  as  in  their  ministry.  The 
jurisdiction  comprised  all  causes  relating  to  the  faith 
and  morals  of  the  laity;  all  questions  arising  about 
marriages,  legitimacy,  wills,  administration  of  intestates' 
estates,  fiduciary  and  pledging  contracts,  promises  and 
keeping  of  oaths.  The  result  of  all  this  was  to  make  the 
clergy  a  privileged  class,  governed  by  their  own  officers 
according  to  their  own  laws,  and  to  give  the  bishops 
authority  over  wide  spheres  of  the  social  life  and  business 
of  the  whole  people. 

A  very  useful  reform  made  at  the  Synod  of  London 
(1075)  was  the  removal  of  some  of  the  Sees  from  villages 
to  the  principal  cities  within  their  jurisdiction;  thus 
Sherborne  was  transferred  to  Old  Sarum  (afterwards  to 
Salisbury  in  1218);  Selsey  to  Chichester;  Lichfield  to 
Chester  (afterwards  to  Coventry  in  1095);  Elmham  to 
Thetford  (removed  again  to  Norwich  in  1094) ;  and 
subsequently,  in  1095,  Dorchester  to  Lincoln. 

The  Normans  were  great  builders;  every  bishop 
rebuilt  his  cathedral  church.  The  new  religious  orders 
were  in  the  full  blaze  of  their  reputation  and  usefulness, 
and  it  was  the  fashion  for  a  great  baron  to  found  a 
monastery,  just  as  it  had  been  for  a  Saxon  lord  of  a 
manor  to  build  a  church  on  his  estate. 

Lanfranc  survived  the  Conqueror  by  seventeen  years, 
and  during  that  time  his  powerful  influence  controlled 
the  conduct  of  Rufus  and  kept  the  affairs  of  the  Church 
and  kingdom  in  order.  On  Lanfranc's  death  (1090), 
the  king  at  once  entered  upon  other  courses.    He  kept 


78    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


the  See  of  Canterbury  vacant  for  three  years;  it  was 
part  of  a  new  device  of  keeping  sees  and  abbacies  vacant, 
and  appropriating  ihe  revenues  to  the  royal  exchequer. 
At  length,  in  1093,  Rufus  was  taken  with  an  illness  which 
threatened  his  life,  and  then  he  consented,  among  otlier 
acts  of  tardy  repentance,  to  fill  the  vacant  archbishopric. 

Anselm,  who  had  succeeded  Lanfranc  at  Caen, 
happened  to  be  in  England  at  the  time;  his  great 
reputation  for  learning  and  sanctity  led  the  bishops  and 
nobles  to  press  him  upon  the  king  as  the  right  man 
for  the  archbishopric.  Anselm  recognised  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  position  and  his  unfitness  to  cope  with 
them.  "  You  would  yoke  an  old  sheep,"  he  said,  "  with 
a  fiery  steed  to  draw  the  plough  of  England ; "  but  the 
office  was  forced  upon  him. 

Anselm  was  not  only  the  most  famous  theologian  of 
his  day,  but  one  of  the  great  theologians  of  the  Middle 
Ages ;  his  work,  Cur  Deus  homo  —  Why  God  became 
man — is  still  a  work  of  authority.  He  was,  besides, 
of  saintly  character  ;  but  he  was  a  failure  as  archbishop. 
For  one  thing,  he  was  wholly  in  favour  of  the  lofty  views 
whicti  had  lately  been  put  forward  as  to  the  Papal 
supremacy,  and  would  have  entirely  surrendered  the 
liberties  of  the  English  crown  and  Church  had  he  been 
allowed ;  and  for  another  thing,  he  had  not  the  practical 
statesmanlike  ability  which  his  office  required,  and  which 
the  difficulties  of  the  time  made  exceptionally  needful ; 
the  greater  part  of  his  episcopate  during  the  reign  of 
Rufus  was  spent  in  exile,  while  the  ecclesiastical  affairs 
of  the  kingdom  were  running  into  worse  confusion. 

The  king  recovered  from  his  sickness,  and  occasion  of 
disagreement  arose  at  once  between  him  and  the  new 
archbishop.  It  was  the  custom  for  a  newly  appointed 
prelate  to  made  a  present  to  the  king.    Anselm  offered 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  79 


;^5oo;*  the  king  refused  it.  Anselm  declared  that  he 
could  not  give  more  without  oppressing  the  tenants  of 
the  See,  and  when  the  king  still  refused  to  accept  it,  he 
gave  it  in  alms  to  the  poor. 

Then  Anselm  requested  permission  to  go  to  Rome  to 
receive  his  pall.  This  raised  two  difficulties.  First,  the 
question  of  going  to  Rome  in  person  for  the  pall.  In 
earlier  times  the  pall  had  been  a  merely  complimentary 
decoration ;  Gregory  the  Great  had  begun  the  practice 
of  limiting  it  to  archbishops.  In  the  course  of  the 
constantly  growing  claims  of  the  Roman  See,  Nicholas 
I.  (a.d.  866)  had  started  the  theory  that  a  new  arch- 
bishop could  not  legitimately  enter  upon  the  duties  of 
his  office  till  he  had  received  the  pall,  i.e.,  till  he  had 
received  the  Papal  recognition,  which  had  the  effect  of 
giving  the  Pope  a  power  of  intervention  in  the  appoint- 
ment of  archbishops.  A  little  later  it  was  claimed  that 
the  confirmation  by  the  Pope  of  an  archbishop's  election 
was  necessary  to  the  validity  of  his  consecration,  and 
that  the  pall  was  the  token  of  this  confirmation.  Lastly, 
the  Hildebrandine  Popes  had  begun  to  require  a  new 
archbishop  to  go  to  Rome  in  person  to  solicit  the  pall, 
and  the  opportunity  was  taken  to  require  from  him 
homage  and  oaths  of  fealty  to  the  Roman  See.  The 
effect  of  it  was  to  put  a  check  upon  the  right  of  nomina- 
tion, and  to  diminish  the  royal  authority  over  some  of 
its  most  powerful  subjects.  So  far  as  it  was  the  object 
of  the  Hildebrandine  party  to  hinder  princes  from 
making  bad  appointments,  we  may  sympathise  with 
them;  but  inasmuch  as  it  was  also  the  object  of  the 
Popes  to  make  the  bishops  of  the  Church  everywhere 
the  ministers  of  their  ecclesiastical  monarchy,  directly 

*  Equivalent  to  ^Sooo  to    10,000  of  our  present  money. 


8o   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 

dependent  upon  themselves  and  under  their  command, 
we  must  object  to  this  invasion  of  the  Hberties  of 
National  Churches.  The  king  opposed  the  encroach- 
ment upon  the  long-established  custom  under  which  the 
crown  had  exercised  the  right  of  nomination  to  sees 
and  great  abbacies,  and  had  received  homage  and  oaths 
of  fealty  on  induction.  What  had  grown  into  a  custom 
in  the  latter  portion  of  the  Saxon  period,  William  the 
Conqueror  had  established  as  part  of  the  royal  preroga- 
tive. The  son  of  the  Conqueror  and  the  pupil  of 
Lanfranc  was  not  ignorant  of  policy  or  likely  to  yield 
any  of  his  royal  right.  Therefoie  the  proposal  of  the 
new  archbishop  to  go  to  Rome  to  receive  the  pall  in 
person  from  the  Pope  was  not  likely  to  meet  with  a 
ready  assent. 

But  there  was  another  difficulty.  There  were  two 
rival  Popes  in  the  field.  Gregory  VII.  had  supported 
Rudolf  in  the  attempt  to  oust  Henry  IV.  from  his 
place  as  Emperor  of  Germany,  and  Henry  had  retorted 
by  promoting  the  election  (Whitsuntide  1080)  of  a  rival 
Pope  under  the  title  of  Clement  III.  On  the  death  of 
Gregory  (1085),  his  party  had,  after  many  difficulties 
and  in  an  irregular  manner,  elected  Urban  II.  (March 
1088).  The  Conqueror  had  expressly  claimed  for  the 
crown  the  right  to  decide  between  rival  claimants  to  the 
Papacy,  and  hitherto  the  king  had  made  no  decision 
in  this  case,  and  the  Church  of  England  was  not 
committed  to  either  Pope.  When  Anselm  asked  leave 
to  seek  his  pall  from  the  Pope,  the  king  asked, 
"Which  Pope?"  and  Anselm  replied,  "Urban."  "But 
I  have  not  acknowledged  him  ; "  and  he  accused  Anselm 
of  a  breach  of  his  oath  of  fealty  in  taking  upon  himself 
to  recognise  Urban. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  king  had  made  up  his 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  8i 


mind  to  recognise  Urban,  but  that  he  desired  to  obtain 
some  concessions  as  the  price  of  his  recognition  of  the 
Pope's  title,  and  the  subsequent  proceedings  make  it 
seem  hkely  that  one  of  these  concessions  was  the  right 
of  giving  the  pall  to  his  own  archbishops.  The  king  at 
once  sent  agents  to  Rome,  who  seem  to  have  proposed 
some  such  compromise.  They  returned  accompanied 
by  a  legate  from  Urban,  and  the  legate  brought  the  pall 
with  him.  Then  the  king  proclaimed  Urban  as  Pope 
without  consultation  with  his  archbishop.  The  Pope 
had  obtained  the  recognition  of  England,  and  the  king 
on  his  side  had  obtained  that  his  archbishop  should 
not  be  required  to  go  to  Rome  to  fetch  his  pall.  But 
now  the  Pope  put  in  practice  one  of  those  clever  com- 
promises by  which  the  subtlety  of  the  Italian  See  has 
so  often  evaded  its  difficulties.  The  Pope  did  not 
send  the  pall  direct  to  Anselm ;  neither  did  he  give 
it  to  the  king  that  he  might  bestow  it ;  the  legate 
laid  it  on  the  altar  of  Canterbury  Cathedral,  and  the 
archbishop  took  it  from  the  altar  and  endued  himself 
with  it. 

The  peace  between  the  violent  king  and  the  inflexible 
prelate  did  not  last  long.  The  king  soon  after  took 
steps  to  bring  the  archbishop  to  trial  on  the  charge 
that  the  troops  he  had  furnished  for  the  Welsh  war 
were  insufficient  in  number  and  equipment;  no  doubt 
intending  to  harass  him  into  submission.  Anselm  asked 
leave  to  go  to  Rome  to  consult  the  Pope ;  the  king 
refused,  and  threatened  him  that  if  he  went  without 
leave  he  would  seize  the  archbishopric  and  never  suffer 
him  to  return.  The  inflexible  prelate  nevertheless  went, 
and  the  violent  king  fulfilled  his  threats. 

Anselm's  exile  gave  him  leisure  to  write  the  book  Ct/r 
Detis  homo  already  mentioned,  and  to  take  an  important 


82    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


part  in  the  Council  at  Barii  (1098)  which  anathema- 
tised the  Greek  Church  for  its  view  on  the  Procession 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  created  the  breach  which  has 
ever  since  existed  between  the  Churches  of  the  East  and 
West.  He  also  attended  a  synod  at  Rome  (the  first 
time  an  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  had  appeared  at  a 
Roman  synod),  at  which  a  canon  was  passed  declaring 
excommunicate  all  laymen  who  gave  investiture  for 
cathedrals  or  abbeys,  and  those  also  who  received  investi- 
ture from  lay  hands  or  came  under  the  tenure  of  homage 
for  such  promotions. 

On  the  death  of  William  H.  and  the  accession  of 
Henry  (iioo  a.d.),  the  new  king  hastened  to  invite 
Anselm  to  return  to  his  See.  On  his  arrival,  the  arch- 
bishop was  required  to  receive  reinvestiture,  which  was 
the  formal  confirmation  of  his  status,  and  to  do  homage 
to  the  new  king,  as  was  usual  at  the  beginning  of  a  new 
reign.  Anselm  refused  to  comply,  pleading  the  canon 
recently  made  at  Rome. 

When  Anselm  pleaded  the  recent  canon,  the  king 
exclaimed,  "What  have  I  to  do  with  a  Roman 
canon  ? "  and  the  king  was  right.  Roman  canons 
never  had  been  received  (and  it  may  be  added  never 
afterwards  were  received)  as  of  any  authority  in  Eng- 
land; the  English  Church  makes  its  own  canons,  and 
is  governed  by  no  other.  Anselm  declared  roundly 
that  unless  the  king  thought  fit  to  comply  with  the 
See  of  Rome,  he  would  not  stay  in  the  country. 
Henry  showed  great  moderation  and  discretion.  He 
probably  saw  that  with  the  Pope  the  new  encroach- 
ment on  the  rights  of  princes  was  a  matter  of  policy, 

'  It  was  at  this  council  that  the  Pope  seated  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  on  his  right  hand,  and  made  use  of  the  complimentary 
phrase  that  he  was  Pa/a  ulterioris  orbis. 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  83 


to  be  insisted  upon  or  withdrawn  or  moderated  as  cir- 
cumstances might  make  it  expedient,  while  Anselm 
made  it  a  matter  of  conscience  to  obey  the  Pope ;  so 
he  proposed  that  the  question  should  rest  till  Easter 
following,  an  interval  of  about  eight  months,  during 
which  both  sides  should  send  agents  to  Rome  to  in- 
duce the  Pope  to  dispense  with  the  canon,  and  in  the 
meantime  Anselm  was  to  be  restored  to  the  profits  and 
jurisdiction  of  his  See.  The  negotiations  were  greatly 
protracted,  but  at  last  the  two  parties  agreed  upon  a  com- 
promise. The  chapters  were  to  have  freedom  of  election  ; 
the  consecration  was  committed  to  the  metropolitan  and 
com-provincial  bishops;  the  bestowal  of  the  temporal 
estates  and  jurisdiction  was  recognised  as  belonging 
to  the  crown,  but  the  king  was  not  to  give  investiture 
with  staif  and  ring,  which  had  the  appearance  of  giving 
the  bishops  and  abbots  their  spiritual  character  and 
authority,  but  the  bishops  and  abbots  were  to  do  homage 
to  the  king,  and  swear  fealty  for  their  temporalities. 
The  decision  was  formally  settled  at  a  meeting  of  bishops 
and  nobles  held  in  London  a.d.  1107.  The  crown  soon 
began  to  evade  the  conditions  of  the  compromise,  and,  at 
first  by  exercising  indirect  influence  on  the  chapters,  and 
before  long  by  sending  a  "letter-missive"  together  with 
the  {:onge  d'elire,  it  retained  the  actual  nomination.^ 

One  great  motive  of  the  crown  for  retaining  the 
patronage  of  the  Sees  was  that  the  kings  had  already 
adopted  the  policy  of  paying  the  ministers  of  their  civil 
administration — secretaries  of  state,  ambassadors,  judges, 
and  such  like — not  out  of  the  revenues  of  the  crown,  nor 
out  of  the  taxes  of  the  people,  but  out  of  the  benefices 

^  The  quarrel  of  investitures  a  little  later  raged  between  the 
Emperor  and  the  Pope,  and  was  settled  by  a  similar  compromise. 


4    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


of  the  Church ;  so  that  the  history  of  England  during 
the  Middle  Ages  contains  a  constant  succession  of  names 
of  statesmen-bishops.  But  it  is  necessary  to  discrimi- 
nate between  them.  Some  were  bishops  first  and  states- 
men afterwards — bishops  whose  force  of  character  and 
genius,  joined  to  their  high  position,  gave  them  influence 
in  affairs  of  State,  like  Lanfranc,  Langton,  and  others  down 
to  Laud ;  others  were  statesmen  first,  who  had  all  along 
been  paid  for  their  services  by  church  benefices,  and  at 
length  attained  to  the  rank  and  revenues  of  a  bishopric 
as  to  one  of  the  highest  prizes  in  the  civil  service,  as 
Corbeuil,  Peter  des  Roches,  Becket  while  chancellor, 
Wykeham,  Arundel,  and  many  others  down  to  Bishop 
Williams,  the  Lord  Keeper  of  the  reigns  of  James  and 
Charles,  who  was  the  last  of  them.  These  latter  per- 
formed their  ecclesiastical  duties  by  deputy,  and  in 
most  cases  their  dioceses  must  have  suffered  by  their 
absence;  but  it  must  be  admitted  that  some  of  them 
were  equal  to  the  double  task,  and  were  eminent  for 
their  services  to  the  Church  as  well  as  to  the  State. 

The  "  freedom  of  election  "  (which  was  nominally  con- 
ceded by  Henry  IL,  which  was  guaranteed  in  the  first 
clause  of  Magna  Charta,  which  was  formally  given  in 
each  case  by  the  co;ige  d'e/ire,  and  which  was  practically 
violated  by  the  letter-missive  nominating  a  particular 
person  to  be  elected),  was  the  right  of  the  Church  to 
.elect  bishops  who  would  do  its  work,  and  not  to  have 
men  thrust  into  its  highest  offices  by  the  king  as  pay- 
ment for  doing  the  king's  work. 

On  the  death  of  Henry,  Stephen  of  Blois,  the  nephew 
of  the  late  king  and  grandson  of  the  Conqueror,  was 
elected  king,  largely  through  the  support  of  Henry's 
statesmen-bishops,  and  of  Henry,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
Stephen's  brother.    The  hereditary  claims  of  Matilda, 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  S5 


the  daughter  of  Henry,  were,  however,  ably  supported 
by  her  illegitimate  half-brother,  Robert,  Earl  of  Salis- 
bury, and  a  civil  war  followed,  which  soon  degenerated 
into  anarchy.  Every  man  who  could  do  it  built  a  castle 
to  protect  himself  from  his  neighbours ;  the  barons 
waged  war  one  against  another ;  robber  knights  from 
their  fortresses  oppressed  their  defenceless  neighbours, 
so  that  many  fled  from  their  houses  for  fear,  and  left 
whole  tracts  of  country  waste  and  uninhabited.  It 
would  seem  at  first  sight  as  if  this  must  have  been  a  bad 
time  for  religion ;  but,  perhaps  owing  in  some  measure 
to  the  very  insecurity  and  misery  in  which  people  lived, 
there  was  a  great  and  general  revival  of  religious  feeling, 
which  extended  to  men  of  all  ranks  and  classes  in  town 
and  country.  One  feature  of  this  religious  revival  was 
tlie  foundation  of  new  monasteries  and  the  introduction 
of  new  orders  of  monks.  It  is  not,  perhaps,  to  be 
wondered  at  that  1115  new  castles  were  built  in  this 
reign,  but  it  is  amazing  to  find  that  there  were  more 
monasteries  built  in  it  than  in  any  other  reign,  in  number 
more  than  a  hundred.  The  power  of  the  clergy  was 
great  in  this  reign ;  in  the  beginning  of  it,  it  had  placed 
Stephen  on  the  throne ;  in  the  latter  part  of  it,  it  inter- 
posed to  put  an  end  to  the  civil  strife.  The  bishops  re- 
fused Stephen's  desire  to  have  his  son  Eustace  crowned 
in  his  own  lifetime  as  his  successor,  and  when  Henry 
Fitz- Empress  appeared  in  arms  to  support  his  own 
claims,  the  bishops  intervened  between  the  hostile 
forces,  and  brought  both  rulers  to  accept  a  compromise, 
by  which  Stephen  was  to  retain  the  throne  for  life,  and 
Henry  to  inherit  after  him. 

The  Normans  built  great  and  strong  castles,  stately 
cathedrals,  noble  abbeys.  No  one  can  see  Ely  or  Peter- 
borough or  Durham,  or  a  dozen  other  churches  which 


86   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


might  be  mentioned,  without  being  impressed  with  a 
sense  of  the  grand  conceptions  and  mastery  of  a  noble 
style  of  architecture  of  the  men  who  planned  and  built 
them.  The  proportions  of  the  buildings  are  often  fine, 
and  the  introduction  of  the  cross  ground  plan  for  the 
great  churches  with  central  and  western  towers,  gave  a 
picturesqueness  of  grouping  which  was  lacking  in  the 
exterior  design  of  the  earlier  basilicas ;  the  zigzag  and 
other  characteristic  mouldings  are  rich  but  bizarre,  and 
animal  forms  are  introduced  into  the  mouldings  with  a 
feeling  approaching  the  grotesque ;  the  attempts  at  the 
human  figure  are  rude.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  style 
the  wall  spaces  were  often  covered  with  surface  carving, 
which  gave  great  richness  of  effect. 

The  monastic  institution  had  just  before  the  Norman 
Conquest  experienced  a  grand  revival,  which  had  led  to 
the  reform  of  the  Benedictine  houses  and  the  foundation 
of  new  orders  based  upon  the  Benedictine  rule.  The 
Norman  nobles  were  great  patrons  of  the  institution,  and 
it  became  a  kind  of  fashion  for  every  great  noble  to  found 
a  monastery  on  his  estates,  just  as  in  earlier  times  it  was 
the  custom  for  a  Saxon  landowner  to  provide  a  parish 
priest.  Of  the  new  orders  of  the  Benedictine  family,  the 
chief  were  the  Clugniac,  Cistercian,  Carthusian.  The  new 
houses  were  often  founded  in  wild  parts  of  the  country, 
and  their  first  endowment  consisted  of  a  large  tract  of  un- 
reclaimed land.  The  skilful  industry  of  the  monks  gradu- 
ally brought  the  land  under  cultivation,  and  the  houses 
became  wealthy.  At  first  they  spent  their  wealth  chiefly  in 
noble  churches  with  dignified  cloister  buildings  attached. 
For  some  centuries  the  influence  of  the  monasteries  was 
great  and  beneficial.  They  were  strongholds  of  religion 
and  learning,  pioneers  of  progress  in  civilisation,  good  and 
considerate  landlords  and  kind  to  the  poor ;  their  abbots 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  87 


mingled  as  equals  with  the  territorial  aristocracy,  and 
helped  to  mould  its  opinions  and  customs.  There  were 
something  less  than  a  hundred  monasteries  at  the  Con- 
quest ;  William  and  his  two  successors  added  upwards  of 
300 ;  many  others  were  subsequently  founded ;  so  that, 
by  the  end  of  the  thirteeenth  century,  great  and  wealthy 
abbeys,  and  still  more  numerous  priories  of  smaller  im- 
portance, were  scattered  everywhere  over  the  country. 
After  1360  A.D.  only  some  half-dozen  new  houses  were 
built. 


CHAPTER  X 


THE  CONFLICT  OF  JURISDICTIONS— THE  CON- 
STITUTIONS OF  CLARENDON 

The  accession  of  Henry  II.  introduces  an  important 
chapter  of  Church  history.  He  was  only  twenty-one  when 
he  came  to  the  throne,  a  young  man  of  powerful  physique 
and  great  force  of  character,  of  boundless  ambition  and 
restless  energy,  with  enough  of  the  soldier  to  serve  his 
purpose,  but  more  of  a  statesman  than  a  soldier.  His 
paternal  inheritance  added  Anjou,  and  his  marriage 
further  added  Aquitaine,  to  his  maternal  inheritance  of 
England  and  Normandy.  Thus  the  young  king  was 
the  most  powerful  sovereign  in  Europe.  He  made  no 
attempt  at  further  conquests,  but  set  himself  to  re- 
duce his  various  dominions  into  order.  In  England 
his  policy  was  to  reduce  the  power  of  the  great  barons 
and  establish  the  royal  authority  over  the  whole  king- 
dom, and  to  reorganise  and  complete  the  adminis- 
trative machinery  which  his  grandfather  Henry  I.  had 
created. 

At  the  beginning  of  his  reign.  Archbishop  Theodore 
had  recommended  Thomas  Becket  to  his  service. 
Thomas  was  the  son  of  Gilbert  Becket,  a  Norman  mer- 
chant in  Cheapside,  London.  He  was  educated  in  the 
house  of  the  Canons  of  Merton  and  at  the  universities 

88 


THE  CONFLICT  OF  JURISDICTIONS  89 


of  Paris  and  Bologna,  and  was  taken  into  the  service 
of  Archbishop  Theobald,  who  employed  him  as  his 
agent  at  the  Papal  court.  His  patron  had  provided  for 
him,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  time,  by  giving  him 
church  benefices,  the  chief  of  which  was  the  Arch- 
deaconry of  Canterbury,  a  position  of  great  dignity  and 
wealth.  The  king  made  Thomas  his  chancellor,  and 
soon  discovering  his  qualities,  committed  the  affairs 
of  England  very  greatly  to  his  hands.  The  new  chan- 
cellor, only  thirty-eight  years  of  age,  was  not  only  an 
able  statesman  but  a  pleasant  companion,  handsome 
in  person,  cultivated  in  mind,  gay  and  cheerful  in  dis- 
position, magnificent  in  his  tastes ;  so  that  the  young 
king  entertained  a  personal  friendship  for  him  and 
treated  him  with  familiarity.  The  chancellor  took  part 
in  the  war  of  Thoulouse  in  full  armour  at  the  head 
of  700  knights  from  his  own  estates,  besides  1200  men- 
at-arms  in  his  pay  and  4000  footmen.  When  peace 
was  made,  the  chancellor  was  sent  as  ambassador  to 
France,  with  such  a  magnificent  train  that  the  beholders 
said,  "If  such  was  the  chancellor,  what  was  the  king?" 
By  the  terms  of  the  treaty  the  baby  princess,  Margaret 
of  France,  was  betrothed  to  the  infant  son  of  Henry, 
and  the  two  royal  children  were  confided  to  the  tutor- 
ship of  the  chancellor. 

On  his  accession  Henry  had  found  the  country  in 
great  disorder  after  the  anarchy  of  the  reign  of  Stephen. 
Every  petty  baron  had  built  himself  a  castle,  and  did 
what  he  pleased  on  his  own  estates,  and  made  war  with 
his  neighbours  like  an  independent  prince.  Henry  dis- 
mantled the  castles  which  had  been  built  without  royal 
license.  By  commuting  his  claim  upon  his  feudal 
vassals,  of  forty  days'  military  service  in  every  year,  for 
a  fixed  payment  (scutage),  he  was  enabled  to  maintain 


90   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 


a  large  force  dependent  entirely  upon  himself,  while 
indirectly  discouraging  the  maintenance  of  the  military 
following  of  the  barons.  At  the  same  time  he  re- 
organised the  ancient  popular  force  of  the  fjyrd,  or 
militia,  under  the  sheriffs  of  the  counties,  to  secure 
order  at  home.  He  revived  the  importance  of  the  Great 
Council  and  increased  the  number  of  its  members.  He 
strengthened  the  Curia  Regis,  and  established  a  regular 
system  of  judges  of  assize  and  judges  in  eyre ;  his  aim 
being  to  abolish  feudal  jurisdictions  and  to  establish  a 
system  of  equal  law  and  justice  for  all  men  over  the 
whole  kingdom.  In  all  this  Becket  was  the  king's  right 
hand,  and  the  wise  policy  and  vigorous  action  of  the 
king  and  his  chancellor  succeeded  in  establishing  the 
royal  authority  over  the  secular  jurisdictions.  There 
remained  one  very  important  exception  to  the  uni- 
versality of  the  new  system,  to  which  the  king  next 
turned  his  attention. 

The  separation  of  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  courts 
of  the  Conqueror  had,  as  has  been  seen  (see  p.  76), 
resulted  in  the  establishment  of  a  separate  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction  all  over  the  country,  which  claimed  the 
clergy  of  all  orders  and  ranks  down  to  the  parish  clerk 
as  its  subjects  to  be  judged  in  all  causes  by  itself  alone, 
and  claimed  authority  over  the  whole  world  of  laymen 
in  certain  causes,  as  doctrine  and  morals,  marriages, 
wills,  &c.  The  ecclesiastical  courts  had  their  own  law, 
judges,  processes,  prisons,  and  penalties.  In  practice 
the  ecclesiastical  courts  were  more  severe  in  dealing 
with  moral  offences  and  less  severe  in  dealing  with 
crime  than  the  secular  courts.  As  a  glaring  instance 
of  the  inequality  which  not  infrequently  occurred,  a 
clerk  who  had  committed  a  crime  could  not  be  tried 


TttE  CONFLICT  OP  jfURISDICTIONS  91 


and  punished  by  the  king's  court,  but  must  be  handed 
over  to  the  ecclesiastical  court,  and  often  when  found 
guilty  of  a  crime  for  which  the  civil  law  would  have 
hanged  him  without  mercy,  he  got  off  with  a  term  of 
imprisonment. 

The  king  desired  to  do  away  with  this  separate 
jurisdiction  of  the  bishops  and  abbots,  as  he  had  done 
with  that  of  the  barons  and  others,  and  to  establish 
one  law  for  all  his  subjects  alike.  On  the  death  of 
Archbishop  Theodore,  it  seemed  to  the  king  that  the 
time  had  come  to  add  this  reform  to  the  others  which 
he  had  successfully  accomplished ;  and  it  occurred  to 
him  as  a  master-stroke  of  policy  to  put  into  the  position 
of  archbishop  the  man  who  had  been  his  counsellor 
and  minister  in  the  previous  measures,  and  who  would, 
he  supposed,  be  in  favour  of  this  completion  of  the 
system. 

Becket,  when  the  king  broached  the  subject  to  him, 
tried  to  turn  it  with  a  jest :  "  Fine  clothes  these  are," 
pointing  to  his  own  handsome  dress,  "  for  an  arch- 
bishop." When  the  king  pressed  the  matter,  Becket 
seriously  warned  him,  "  If  you  do  as  you  say,  my  lord, 
you  will  soon  hate  me  as  much  as  you  love  me  now ; 
for  you  assume  an  authority  in  church  affairs  to  which 
I  should  not  consent ;  and  there  will  be  plenty  of 
persons  to  stir  up  strife  between  us."  The  king  per- 
sisted, and  on  Whitsunday  Becket  the  chancellor  was 
ordained  priest,  and  on  the  following  Sunday  was  con- 
secrated bishop  (and  appointed  the  latter  day  to  be 
thereafter  observed  as  the  festival  of  the  Holy  Trinity). 
The  archbishop  at  once  resigned  the  chancellorship, 
and  began  to  lead  an  ascetic  life,  and  to  devote  himself 
to  the  duties  of  his  new  ofifice.    He  had  been  in 


92   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


the  service  of  the  good  Archbishop  Theodore  till 
the  age  of  thirty-six;  eight  years  of  the  king's  service 
had  not  so  changed  him  that  he  could  not  fall  back 
easily  into  the  ideas  and  habits  in  which  he  had  been 
brought  up. 

Occasion  of  disagreement  between  the  king  and  the 
archbishop  soon  arose.  The  archbishop  excommuni- 
cated one  who  was  the  king's  tenant  t'n  capite  without 
the  king's  leave  \  on  the  other  hand,  the  king  demanded 
that  a  clerk  who  had  committed  murder  should  be 
handed  over  to  the  king's  justice  and  Becket  refused. 
The  king  then  demanded  that  the  archbishop  should 
promise  to  obey  the  customs  of  the  realm.  The  clergy 
and  the  king  sent  agents  to  the  Pope  to  engage  his 
influence.  The  Pope  acted  with  the  usual  tortuous 
policy  of  the  Roman  Curia ;  temporised,  gave  ambigu- 
ous replies,  said  enough  to  encourage  the  archbishop 
without  breaking  with  the  king;  did  not  sanction  the 
king's  proposals,  but  recommended  the  bishops  not  to 
quarrel  with  him. 

Becket  seems  to  have  tried  to  follow  this  temporising 
policy.  At  length  the  king  brought  the  matter  to  a 
head  by  summoning  a  Great  Council  to  meet  at  Clarendon 
(1164  A.D.),  directing  the  justiciar,  with  the  help  of 
some  of  the  oldest  barons,  to  put  down  in  writing  the 
customs  observed  in  his  grandfather's  time,  and  requiring 
the  clergy  formally  to  accept  them.  These  customs 
were  drawn  up  under  sixteen  heads,  known  as  the  Con- 
stitutions of  Clarendon.  The  most  important  of  them 
declared  that  beneficed  clergy  should  not  leave  the 
kingdom  without  the  king's  leave ;  that  no  tenant  in 
chief  should  be  excommunicated  without  the  king's 
knowledge ;  that  no  villein  should  be  ordained  without 
his  lord's  consent;  that  a  criminous  clerk  should  be 


THE  CONFLICT  OF  JURISDICTIONS  93 


tried  in  the  king's  court,  and  that  after  he  had  been 
convicted  or  had  pleaded  guilty,  the  Church  should  not 
protect  him  from  the  punishment  sentenced  by  the  lay 
court.  On  the  other  hand,  the  clergy  were  to  retain 
their  jurisdiction,  subject  to  the  right  of  the  Curia 
Jiegis  to  determine  what  matters  were  properly  to  be 
decided  by  them.  Moreover,  no  appeal  was  to  be 
made  to  Rome  without  the  permission  of  the  Curia 
Jiegis. 

At  first  sight,  from  our  nineteenth-century  point  of 
view,  the  demands  of  the  king  seem  reasonable.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  clergy 
were  asked  voluntarily  to  surrender  rights  and  immuni- 
ties which  they  actually  enjoyed  by  the  grant  of  former 
kings.  The  king's  law  and  the  king's  courts  mean 
to  us  equal  justice  between  man  and  man,  and  even 
between  the  subject  and  the  crown ;  but  in  those  days 
they  meant  tyranny  and  injustice  where  the  king's  in- 
terests were  concerned,  and  uncertain  justice  and  cruel 
sentences  even  where  it  was  no  great  man's  interest  to 
weight  the  scale.  What  the  clergy  had  to  determine  was 
whether  it  was  expedient  to  surrender  the  protection 
from  arbitrary  treatment  and  from  a  semi-barbarous 
jurisdiction  which  their  own  more  scientific  system  of 
law  and  their  own  purer  administration  of  it  afforded. 
When  the  bishops  were  disposed  to  give  way,  the  arch- 
bishop had  to  determine  whether  he  would  betray  the 
interests  of  the  vast  number  of  persons  who  enjoyed 
these  immunities  for  which  his  firmness  was  their  sole 
security. 

Behind  these  considerations  lay  another  which  had 
great  weight  with  all  parties.  It  was  not  merely  a 
question  of  more  or  less  equal  justice  to  the  individual, 
or  the  symmetry  of  a  national  system  of  jurisprudence ; 


94    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


it  was  also  a  question  of  the  rivalry  between  the  spiritual 
and  the  secular  power,  which  the  Hildebrandine  Popes 
had  started,  and  which  had  not  yet  attained  its  climax. 
The  surrender  by  any  national  church  of  the  privileges 
and  immunities  which  it  had  acquired  would  have  been 
like  the  capitulation  of  an  army  cori'S  in  the  middle  of  a 
great  campaign.  Thomas  was  too  much  of  a  churchman 
by  training  and  conviction  not  to  be  largely  influenced 
by  the  latter  consideration. 

After  some  temporising  and  vacillation,  Becket  finally 
refused  to  accept  the  proposed  Constitutions.  Henry 
proceeded  at  once  to  take  measures  which  would  compel 
him  to  yield  or  crush  him.  An  action  was  brought 
against  the  archbishop  in  the  king's  court,  and  on  his 
refusal  to  appear  in  person  he  was  condemned  to  for- 
feiture of  all  his  personal  property.  Next  an  accusation 
was  brought  against  him  of  malversation  in  his  office  of 
chancellor,  notwithstanding  that  a  formal  discharge  had 
been  given  him  on  his  quitting  office,  and  the  council 
declared  him  a  traitor.  A  scene  of  the  highest  dramatic 
interest  took  place  in  the  ante-chamber  of  the  council 
room  when  Becket,  cross  in  hand,  forbade  the  justiciar 
to  announce  to  him  the  sentence  of  the  council,  re- 
plied with  fierce  contempt  to  the  insults  of  the  barons, 
and  quitted  the  chamber,  no  man  offering  to  lay  hand 
upon  him.  But  he  recognised  his  danger,  quitted  the 
court  in  disguise,  and  fled.  After  hiding  in  the  houses  of 
the  new  Sempringham  Order  until  pursuit  was  baffled,  he 
at  length  reached  the  coast,  crossed  to  the  Continent, 
and  for  the  next  six  years  resided  chiefly  at  the  Cistercian 
monastery  of  Pontigny  near  Sens. 

The  king  confiscated  the  revenues  of  the  See,  plun- 
dered Becket's  relations  and  banished  them,  making 
them  swear  to  go  and  present  themselves  in  their  ruin 


THE  CONFLICT  OF  JURISDICTIONS  95 


and  misery  to  the  archbishop.  After  six  years,  the  king 
desiring  to  secure  the  succession  of  the  throne  to  his  son 
Henry,  had  him  recognised  and  crowned  (1170  a.d.)  by 
Roger,  Archbishop  of  York.  But  on  the  day  before  the 
coronation  Roger  received  notice  that  Becket  had  ex- 
communicated all  bishops  who  should  take  part  in  the 
coronation,  in  disregard  of  the  rights  which  belonged  to 
the  See  of  Canterbury,  and  that  the  Pope  had  ratified 
the  sentence.  It  was  possible  that  the  coronation  by  an 
excommunicated  bishop  might  give  rise  to  difficulties, 
and  the  validity  of  the  whole  transaction  might  be 
challenged. 

To  obviate  this  danger,  Henry  made  overtures  to 
Becket,  had  an  interview  with  him  in  Normandy,  in  which 
a  reconciliation  was  patched  up,  and  the  king  invited 
the  archbishop  to  return  to  England  on  the  condition 
that  the  past  should  be  forgotten  on  both  sides.  The 
king  even  proposed  to  put  the  administration  of  his  affairs 
in  England  again  into  Becket's  hands.  Becket  at  once 
returned,  and  was  received  with  great  demonstrations  of 
joy  by  the  people.  But  he  had  prepared  fresh  trouble 
by  sending  before  him  a  refusal  to  release  from  excom- 
munication the  bishops  who  had  crowned  young  Henry 
unless  they  made  satisfaction  to  the  See  of  Canterbury. 
The  bishops  at  once  crossed  the  sea  to  Normandy  to  lay 
their  complaint  before  Henry.  "  What  would  you  have 
me  do?"  said  the  king.  "Your  barons  must  advise 
you,"  said  one  of  the  bishops,  "  but  as  long  as  Thomas 
lives  you  will  never  be  at  peace."  "  A  curse  on  all  the 
false  varlets  I  have  maintained,"  said  the  king,  "who 
have  left  me  so  long  subject  to  the  insolence  of  a 
priest." 

Four  of  his  knights  had  heard  the  rash  words.  They 
started  in  haste  for  Canterbury  and  sought  out  the  arch- 


96    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


bishop.  His  servants  persuaded  him  to  retire  to  the 
church,  but  he  would  not  allow  the  doors  to  be  secured. 
The  knights  rushed  in  exclaiming,  "Where is  the  traitor? 
where  is  the  archbishop  ?  "  "  Behold  me,"  said  Thomas, 
"  no  traitor,  but  a  priest  of  God."  One  laid  hold  of  him 
to  drag  him  away  from  the  altar  at  which  he  stood,  but 
the  archbishop  cast  him  off.  Then  they  attacked  him 
with  their  swords ;  his  cross-bearer,  trying  to  ward  off  the 
first  blow,  was  wounded ;  then  another  blow  struck  the 
archbishop  on  the  head,  inflicting  a  mortal  wound; 
other  blows  followed,  and  they  left  him  dead  upon  the 
spot. 

The  sympathies  of  the  English  people  had  been  with 
the  archbishop  ;  the  news  of  his  murder  excited  general 
indignation  not  only  in  England  but  throughout  Europe. 
The  cause  of  the  Church  against  the  princes  gained 
immense  prestige  through  the  "martyrdom,"  as  it  was 
called,  of  Becket.  Henry  found  it  necessary  to  bend  to 
the  storm.  In  1 172  a.d.  he  met  the  Pope's  legates  at 
Avranches,  swore  that  he  was  innocent  of  the  death  of 
Thomas,  and  renounced  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon. 
He  had  his  son  crowned  over  again  to  satisfy  the 
scruples  of  King  Louis  about  the  former  coronation. 
On  his  next  visit  to  England  he  passed  through  Canter- 
bur}^,  spent  the  night  before  the  shrine  of  the  mattyred 
archbishop,  and  was  scourged  by  the  monks  in  token  of 
penitence. 

In  the  subsequent  part  of  his  reign,  however,  Henry 
filled  the  Sees  with  the  high  officials  of  his  government, 
and  quietly  made  good  most  of  the  claims  which  had 
been  put  forth  in  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon. 

The  great  ecclesiastical  event  of  the  reign  of  EichardL 
was  the  brilliant  episode  of  the  second  Crusade.  Hubert 
Walter,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  one  of  the  states- 


THE  CONFLICT  OF  JURISDICTIONS  97 


men  of  Henry  II.,  administered  the  kingdom  in  his 
absence.  One  minor  incident,  which,  however,  affected 
every  parish,  was  the  seizure  of  all  the  church  plate  of 
the  kingdom  to  make  up  the  ransom  of  the  captive 
king. 


CHAPTER  XI 


THE  PAPAL  SUPREMACY 

The  earlier  years  of  John's  reign  were  controlled  by 
the  regular  government  of  the  great  ofificers  of  State 
organised  by  Henry  II.  and  consolidated  by  the  ten 
years'  absence  of  Richard,  at  the  head  of  which  was 
Archbishop  Hubert  Walter,  who  had  been  the  virtual 
viceroy  of  the  absent  king. 

On  the  death  of  Archbishop  Hubert  in  1205  a.d., 
some  of  the  younger  monks  of  Christ  Church,  Canter- 
bury, anxious  to  assert  the  right  of  free  election  by 
anticipating  the  king's  conge  d'elire  and  letter-missive, 
met  on  the  very  night  of  the  archbishop's  death,  elected 
Reginald  the  sub-prior,  enthroned  him,  and  sent  him 
off  at  once  to  Rome  to  obtain  the  Pope's  confirmation 
before  the  matter  should  become  known.  But  as  soon 
as  Reginald  arrived  in  Flanders,  his  vanity  led  him  to 
boast  of  his  position,  and  the  news  soon  came  back  to 
England.  The  king  ignored  the  irregular  proceeding 
and  issued  his  conge  d'elire,  but  to  prevent  objections, 
contented  himself  with  intimating  privately  his  wish  for 
the  election  of  John  de  Grey,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  and 
Grey  was  elected  without  a  contradictory  voice;  the 
party  of  Reginald,  ashamed  of  his  conduct,  and  possibly 
afraid  of  the  consequences  of  their  intrigue,  concurring 
in  the  election.  John  also  then  sent  twelve  of  the  monks 
98 


THE  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  99 


to  Rome  to  obtain  the  Pope's  confirmation.  But  both 
parties  had  infringed  the  rights  of  the  bishops  of  the 
province  by  neglecting  to  secure  their  assent,  and  the 
bishops  also  sent  an  agent  to  Rome  to  represent  their 
grievance. 

Innocent  III.,  the  greatest  of  all  the  Popes,  was  then 
the  occupant  of  the  Roman  See.  The  disinterested 
zeal  of  earlier  Popes  to  rescue  the  presentation  to 
bishoprics  out  of  the  hands  of  princes  had  taken  the 
ambitious  turn  of  seeking  to  obtain  the  right  of  nomina- 
tion for  the  Papacy,  and  Innocent  embraced  this  oppor- 
tunity of  interference  in  the  disposal  of  the  greatest 
dignity  of  the  English  Church.  He  pronounced  that 
the  election  of  Reginald  was  irregular  and  invalid,  but 
that  it  ought  to  have  been  declared  invalid  by  the 
Roman  court  before  the  second  election  was  proceeded 
with,  and  on  that  ground  he  declared  that  the  election 
of  De  Grey  was  also  uncanonical.  Then,  instead  of 
leaving  a  new  election  to  take  place  in  due  course,  he 
summoned  to  his  presence  the  monks  of  Christ  Church 
who  had  been  sent  to  Rome  about  the  business,  and 
bade  them  proceed  to  a  new  election  in  his  presence, 
and  to  elect  Stephen  Langion.  He  put  aside  all  their 
representations  as  to  their  incompetence ;  when  they 
pleaded  that  they  had  taken  an  oath  not  to  accept  any 
but  De  Grey,  he  absolved  them  from  their  oath  ;  finally, 
he  threatened  to  excommunicate  them  if  they  refused  to 
obey  him,  and  so  coerced  them  into  compliance;  they 
elected,  and  the  Pope  consecrated,  Stephen  Langton 
as  Archbishop  (June  1207).  It  is  only  doing  justice  to 
the  Pope  and  to  Langton  to  say  that  the  Pope  was  not 
putting  forward  an  unworthy  creature  of  his  own,  for 
Langton  was  an  Englishman  of  the  highest  character 
and  reputation.    The  Pope  was  practically  enforcing  the 


loo   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 

doctrine  that  the  Archbishopric  of  Canterbury  ought  to 
be  occupied  by  a  prelate  chosen  by  the  Church  in  the 
interests  of  religion,  and  not  given  by  the  king  as  the 
payment  of  his  minister.  But  the  Pope's  nomination 
was  an  innovation,  an  invasion  of  the  rights  and  dignity 
of  the  English  crown  and  Church,  and  not  to  be  sub- 
mitted to. 

The  king  was  enraged ;  he  drove  the  monks  of  Christ 
Church  out  of  the  kingdom,  wrote  to  the  Pope  insisting 
upon  his  confirmation  of  Grey's  election,  and  declared 
that  Langton  should  never  set  foot  in  the  kingdom. 
Innocent  made  some  concession,  pressing  the  king  to 
accept  Langton,  but  promising  that  the  present  trans- 
action should  not  be  drawn  into  a  precedent;  but  the 
king  refused  to  yield,  and  the  Pope  proceeded  to  use 
the  weapons  with  which  the  superstitions  of  the  time 
supplied  him ;  in  order  to  coerce  the  king,  he  put  the 
nation  under  interdict  (1208  a.d.). 

The  effect  of  this  sentence  was  to  deprive  the  people 
of  the  ordinary  ministrations  of  the  Church ;  the  clergy 
were  permitted  to  baptize  the  newly  born  and  to  admi- 
nister the  last  sacraments  to  the  dying,  but  the  churches 
were  closed  and  all  regular  services  suspended,  and  the 
people  were  required  to  observe  the  discipline  of  Lent ; 
the  land  lay  under  the  ban  of  the  Church  for  the  wicked- 
ness of  its  king. 

Two  bishops  in  the  king's  interest,  Peter  des  Roches, 
the  Poitevin  Bishop  of  Winchester,  and  John  de  Grey 
of  Norwich,  disregarded  the  interdict,  while  the  other 
bishops  left  the  kingdom ;  the  clergy  generally  obeyed 
the  sentence,  except  those  of  Winchester  and  Norwich, 
and  a  few  scattered  parishes  elsewhere.  The  Cistercian 
monasteries,  which  had  the  privilege  of  exemption  from 
a  general  sentence  of  interdict,  continued  their  services. 


THE  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  loi 


but  with  closed  doors.  John  retaliated  by  seizing  the 
property  of  the  bishops  and  clergy  who  obeyed  the 
interdict  and  threatened  to  banish  them,  and  he  com- 
manded the  monks  to  keep  within  their  cloisters. 
Shortly,  however,  he  allowed  the  clergy  a  scanty  main- 
tenance out  of  their  estates  and  confiscated  the  rest  of 
their  income. 

Finding  that  the  misery  of  the  kingdom  did  not 
subdue  the  king's  resistance,  tlie  Pope  proceeded,  in 
1209  A.D.,  to  excommunicate  the  king.  The  effect  of 
this  sentence  was  to  cut  off  the  subject  of  it  from  the 
Church,  and  to  cause  all  Christians  to  avoid  intercourse 
wkh  him.  But  neither  did  this  reduce  the  king  to 
obedience;  and  in  121 1  the  Pope  proceeded  to  issue 
a  bull  of  deposition  against  John,  and  to  charge  King 
Philip  of  France  to  execute  the  sentence,  with  suc- 
cession to  the  forfeited  throne.  Philip  began  to  muster 
forces  for  the  invasion  of  England ;  John  wrung  money 
out  of  the  Jews  and  the  abbeys  and  raised  an  army ; 
but  he  could  not  trust  it,  for  he  had  incurred  the  hatred 
of  all  classes  of  his  subjects,  and  stood  in  fear  of 
deposition  and  death. 

But  John  was  not  without  a  certain  kind  of  states- 
manship, and  he  extricated  himself  from  his  dangerous 
position  at  a  stroke  by  making  friends  with  his  greatest 
enemy.  In  12 13  he  made  entire  submission  to  the 
Pope,  swore  to  admit  Langton  as  archbishop,  to  restore 
their  rights  to  the  banished,  to  give  back  the  money 
wrongfully  exacted,  and  over  and  above  all  this  to 
surrender  his  crown  to  the  Pope  and  receive  it  back  as 
the  Pope's  liegeman,  and  pay  him  a  tribute  of  a  thousand 
marks  a  year. 

The  archbishop  thus  forced  upon  the  Church  and 
nation  turned  out  to  be  a  model  prelate,  and  played 


102   HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


a  part  which  has  made  his  one  of  ihc  great  names  in 
our  history.  He  was  an  Englishman  by  birth,  holding 
a  prebend  in  the  cathedral  church  of  York,  though  he 
had  long  been  absent  from  his  native  country.  A  man 
of  piety,  learning,  and  ability,  he  had  lately  been  the 
head  of  the  University  of  Paris,  then  the  greatest  theo- 
logical school  of  Europe.  There  he  had  been  the 
intimate  friend  of  Innocent;  and  when  Innocent  was 
elected  to  the  Papal  See,  he  had  invited  Langton  to 
Rome,  placed  him  in  high  office,  and  had  lately  made 
him  a  cardinal.  In  nominating  him  to  the  Archbishopric 
of  Canterbury,  Innocent  seems  to  have  chosen  a  man 
whose  character  would  justify  the  Pope's  high-handed 
interposition  and  compel  all  men  to  recognise  the  differ- 
ence between  the  man  the  Pope  had  chosen  as  arch- 
bishop and  the  serviceable  creature  whom  the  king 
would  have  put  into  that  position  in  order  to  paralyse 
the  opposition  of  the  Church  to  the  royal  tyranny. 

The  course  of  events  very  soon  gave  Langton  oppor- 
tunity to  show  the  nation  what  manner  of  man  he  was. 
When  the  king  sought  to  take  advantage  of  his  re- 
covered authority  to  raise  the  national  forces  to  wage 
war  for  the  recovery  of  Anjou  and  Normandy,  his  barons 
refused  to  follow  him  on  the  ground  that  they  had 
already  fulfilled  the  obligation  of  their  feudal  service. 
John  would  have  waged  war  against  his  barons,  but  the 
archbishop  threatened  with  excommunication  every  cne 
who  took  up  arms  against  them  in  an  unjust  civil  strife. 
Some  of  them  consented  to  aid  the  king,  but  the  ex- 
pedition was  unsuccessful.  On  his  return,  the  king 
sought  revenge  upon  all  who  had  remained  at  home 
by  demanding  an  exorbitant  scutage  from  them.  The 
barons  met  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  and  resolved  upon 
armed  resistance.    The  king  tried  to  detach  the  Church 


THE  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  103 


from  the  movement  by  promising  freedom  of  election 
to  sees  and  abbacies;  he  persuaded  the  Pope  to 
threaten  the  barons  with  excommunication,  and  he 
brought  over  a  large  force  of  foreign  mercenary  soldiers. 
The  archbishop  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  national 
movement.  He  prevented  the  Pope's  sentence  of  ex- 
communication ;  he  put  the  demands  of  the  barons  in 
writing ;  on  John's  refusal  to  grant  them,  armed  forces 
were  collected,  under  the  title  of  "the  army  of  God  and 
Holy  Church,"  to  force  their  acceptance  upon  the  king. 
London  admitted  the  barons'  army  within  its  walls ;  the 
trading  classes  united  with  the  barons  and  the  Church 
in  the  national  movement.  John  was  deserted  by  all 
but  the  great  officials  of  the  government  and  a  few  of 
the  barons  especially  connected  with  the  royal  family, 
who  sought  to  save  it  from  ruin.  John  found  himself 
compelled  to  swear  to  and  sign  the  Great  Charter  at 
Runnimede  (15th  June  12 15),  with  the  secret  determi- 
nation to  repudiate  his  oath  and  signature  at  the  first 
opportunity.  The  first  clause  of  the  charter  declared 
that  the  Church  was  to  be  free,  its  privileges  to  be 
respected,  and  its  right  to  free  elections  not  to  be  in- 
fringed. The  remaining  clauses  guarded  the  freedom 
and  rights  not  only  of  the  barons,  but  of  the  com- 
monalty. All  classes  were  secured  against  arbitrary 
power ;  the  king  was  only  to  demand  supplies  with  the 
consent  of  the  Great  Council ;  no  man  was  to  be  pro- 
ceeded against  except  by  the  judgment  of  his  peers 
or  the  law  of  the  land ;  the  king  was  to  dismiss  his 
mercenary  troops ;  and  a  council  of  twenty-five  was  ap- 
pointed to  watch  over  the  fulfilment  of  the  conditions  of 
the  charter.  In  form  the  Great  Charter  was  a  royal  grant, 
in  fact  it  was  a  treaty  between  the  king  and  his  people. 
John,  relieved  from  the  immediate  pressure  of  force, 


I04    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


at  once  took  steps  to  break  the  treaty.  The  Pope  pro- 
tected his  vassal  by  declaring  the  barons  to  be  rebels 
and  releasing  the  king  from  his  oath.  John,  instead  of 
dismissing  his  mercenaries,  hired  large  reinforcements. 
The  barons  mustered  their  forces  and  were  defeated  by 
John's  mercenaries.  Then  the  barons  took  the  extreme 
step  of  inviting  the  French  king  to  their  aid,  offering 
the  crown  to  Louis  the  Dauphin.  The  Pope  excom- 
municated Louis  and  placed  London  under  interdict, 
but  the  Londoners  took  no  heed  of  the  Pope's  fulmina- 
tions.  In  the  midst  of  the  civil  war  John  died  (1216^ 
and  his  death  opened  a  door  for  the  reconciliation  of 
the  crown  with  the  people.  The  eldest  son  of  John 
was  only  nine  years  old  at  his  father's  death,  but  he  was 
at  once  recognised  as  king  by  his  father's  friends.  Louis 
and  the  barons  who  adhered  to  him  were  defeated  at 
Lincoln,  and  the  nation  rallied  to  the  side  of  the  young 
king.  The  Great  Charter  was  renewed,  and  the  govern- 
ment was  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  Regency. 

The  Papal  power  reached  its  climax  in  England  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  III.  During  the  minority  of  the 
king  the  Papal  legate — first  Gualo  and  then  Pandulph — 
was  one  of  his  guardians,  and  William  Marshal,  Earl  of 
Pembroke,  was  the  other;  and  these  two,  with  Hubert 
de  Burgh,  the  justiciar,  formed  the  Regency.  In  1227 
Henry  declared  himself  of  age  (he  was  twenty  years  old), 
and  put  the  Poitevin  Peter  de  Roches,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, at  the  head  of  affairs.  The  king  was  amiable 
and  accomplished,  but  feeble  and  vacillating,  and  always 
in  the  hands  of  foreign  favourites,  on  whom  he  lavished 
offices,  honours,  and  estates.  Partly  in  recognition  of 
the  relation  in  which  his  father  had  placed  the  kingdom 
and  the  Papal  See,  partly  because  he  needed  the  support 
of  the  Pope  against  his  own  nobles,  Henry  allowed  the 


THE  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  105 


Pope  to  make  great  inroads  upon  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  the  Church  of  England.  The  Popes  had  recently 
started  the  theory  that,  as  sovereigns  of  the  Church,  all 
church  benefices  were  rightly  at  their  disposal,  in  entire 
disregard  of  the  rights  of  patrons,  and  that  all  the 
clergy  were  their  subjects.  They  used  to  issue  mandates 
requiring  a  bishop  to  find  a  benefice  for  the  person  re- 
commended ;  they  nominated  persons  to  the  reversion 
of  particular  benefices  by  what  were  called  "letters  of 
provision."  They  carried  these  pretensions  to  a  great 
extent  in  England.  Foreigners  were  intruded  into  the 
best  benefices.  In  1240  the  legate  obtained  a  promise 
from  the  king  to  present  300  Italian  priests  to  benefices 
before  he  presented  a  single  Englishman.  Mansel,  the 
king's  chaplain,  was  said  to  hold  700  church  benefices 
at  the  same  time.  On  one  occasion  three  strangers 
walked  into  York  Minster  and  proceeded  to  the  choir, 
where  two  of  them  installed  the  third  as  Dean,  acting 
under  the  authority  of  a  Papal  bull ;  when  the  arch- 
bishop refused  to  recognise  the  appointment,  he  was 
excommunicated  and  an  interdict  was  laid  on  the 
diocese.  Grosseteste,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  was  suspended 
for  refusing  to  institute  a  foreigner  into  a  benefice  ;  which 
did  not  prevent  him  at  a  later  period  from  writing  a 
famous  letter  to  the  Pope,  refusing  to  obey  a  letter  of 
provision,  and  remonstrating  with  him  on  the  wicked- 
ness of  his  policy. 

On  the  theory  that  the  benefices  were  at  the  Pope's  dis- 
posal, the  Popes  demanded  a  regular  revenue  from  them ; 
a  twentieth  of  all  ecclesiastical  revenues  whatever,  a  third 
of  such  as  exceeded  100  marks,  a  half  of  such  as  were 
possessed  by  non-residents,  and  the  entire  revenues  of 
all  benefices  during  their  vacancy.  Moreover,  the  Popes 
assumed  the  right  to  demand  extraordinary  taxes  and 


lo6   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


aids  from  the  clergy  as  other  sovereigns  did  from  their 
subjects.  Thus  in  1229  the  Pope  demanded  and  ob- 
tained a  tenth  of  all  ecclesiastical  benefices;  in  1240  the 
legate  Otho  dealt  with  the  bishops  and  abbots  indivi- 
dually, demanding  benevolences  to  aid  the  Pope  in  his 
war  with  the  Emperor,  and  it  was  said  carried  more 
money  out  of  the  kingdom  than  remained  in  it.  In 
1244  again  an  agent  of  the  Pope,  Martin  by  name,  re- 
peated these  exactions  with  equal  success.  In  1256,  for 
the  first  time,  Pope  Alexander  IV.  demanded  a  grant 
of  the  first-fruits  of  new  incumbents  for  five  years,  and 
first-fruits  soon  became  established  as  a  regular  part  of 
the  Papal  revenue  from  the  country. 

The  popular  indignation  showed  itself  in  the  formation 
of  secret  associations  in  many  places  up  and  down  the 
country,  which  organised  a  violent  opposition  to  the 
Italian  clergy,  wasted  their  fields,  emptied  their  barns 
and  gave  the  contents  to  the  poor,  and  insulted  their 
persons ;  it  was  rumoured  that  these  proceedings  were 
encouraged  by  people  in  high  positions. 

When  Innocent  IV.  summoned  a  Council  at  Lyons 
(1255  A.D.)  to  e.xcommunicate  the  Emperor  Frederick, 
the  English  king  and  nobility  sent  representatives  to 
complain  before  the  council  of  the  avarice  of  the  Roman 
Church.  They  represented,  among  many  other  griev- 
ances, that  the  benefices  held  by  Italian  clergy  in  England 
had  been  estimated,  and  found  to  amount  to  60,000 
marks  a  year,  a  sum  which  exceeded  the  revenue  of  the 
crown.  When  mention  was  made  before  the  council  of 
the  feudal  subjection  of  England  to  the  See  of  Rome, 
Roger  Bigod,  Earl  of  Norfolk,  and  the  other  English 
agents,  challenged  the  claim,  and  insisted  that  John  had 
no  right  or  power,  without  the  consent  of  the  barons, 
to  subject  the  kingdom  to  any  such  servitude. 


THE  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  ic? 

At  length  Simon  de  Montfort,  Earl  of  Leicester,  the 
king's  brother-in-law,  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a 
movement  of  resistance  against  the  manifold  abuses  of 
the  government.  The  Church  again,  as  in  the  time 
of  John,  put  itself  in  the  forefront  in  defence  of  the 
national  liberties  and  rights.  Edmund  Rich,  the  saintly 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  did  not  shrink  from  the 
political  action  which  his  place  as  the  foremost  subject 
of  the  realm  demanded  of  him.  Grosseteste,  the  learned 
and  ascetic  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  the  personal  friend  and 
adviser  of  De  Montfort,  took  an  active  part  in  the 
constitutional  opposition  to  both  king  and  Pope.  In 
1258  the  barons,  summoned  to  a  Parliament  at  West- 
minster, appeared  in  arms  and  demanded  the  expul- 
sion of  foreigners  and  the  establishment  of  a  committee 
of  twenty-four  to  reform  the  realm.  When  the  king 
violated  the  conditions,  the  barons  were  joined  by  the 
citizens  in  arms.  The  king  and  his  supporters  were 
defeated  at  Lewes  (1264  a.d.)  and  a  regency  appointed. 
In  the  following  year  the  barons  were  defeated  in  turn 
at  Evesham.  In  a  Parliament  in  1267  a  statute  was 
enacted  which  granted  most  of  the  reforms  demanded. 
Henry  allowed  his  son  Edward  to  be  the  real  head  of 
the  government,  and  the  country  entered  upon  a  new  era. 

The  combined  resistance  of  the  barons,  the  Church, 
and  the  citizens  during  this  and  the  previous  reigns 
helped  to  weld  England  into  a  nation  and  a  national 
Church,  jealous  of  foreign  influences  in  Church  and 
State.  Edward  sympathised  with  the  national  aspira- 
tions, and  set  himself  to  embody  them  in  permanent 
institutions.  From  his  accession  to  the  throne  in  1272 
we  may  date  the  beginning  of  the  recovery  of  the 
liberties  of  the  English  Church  from  the  usurpations  of 
the  Roman  See. 


io8   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 


Beneath  the  political  troubles  of  the  reigns  of  John 
and  Henry  III.,  which  lie  on  the  surface  of  the  history 
of  the  country,  and  specially  attract  the  attention  of  the 
student,  there  was  going  on  an  immense  movement  and 
growth  of  the  national  life.  The  political  troubles  were 
indeed  one  of  its  symptoms ;  they  were  the  outward 
phenomena  of  the  struggle  of  the  nation  to  secure  its 
liberties  and  rights  by  effectual  constitutional  guarantees. 
The  barons  of  the  Norman  Conquest  had  been  largely 
replaced  by  a  new  race  of  nobles  sprung  from  the  great 
ministerial  families;  the  secular  clergy  were  recovering 
from  the  injury  done  to  their  revenues  and  their  spiritual 
influence  by  the  popularity  of  the  monastic  institution ; 
the  middle  class  was  rising  into  wealth  and  importance ; 
the  tyranny  of  John  and  the  faults  of  Henry's  reign  had 
stirred  up  the  people  to  resistance,  and  had  helped  to 
weld  all  ranks  and  classes,  nobles,  clergy,  and  commons, 
into  a  united  people.  It  was  the  nation  which  rose  in 
arms  against  John  and  Henry,  and  wrested  from  them 
the  principles  of  constitutional  government.  Edward  re- 
cognised these  principles  as  right,  and  organised  Parlia- 
ment, and  initiated  the  system  of  legislation  which  has 
continued  ever  since. 

The  architectural  monuments  afford  a  striking  illus- 
tration of  the  character  of  the  time.  The  Normans 
were  great  builders,  and  filled  the  land  with  castles,  cathe- 
drals, and  abbeys  ;  but  the  architectural  activity  of  the 
thirteenth  century  exceeded  that  of  any  other  previous 
century  in  history.^ 

There  were  no  castles  built  in  it,  and  very  few  monas- 
teries. On  the  other  hand,  nearly  all  the  cathedrals, 
so  lately  built,  were  added  to  or  partly  rebuilt  on  a 


Fergusson,  "  History  of  Architecture." 


THE  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  109 


grander  scale ;  numerous  churches  were  built  in  the 
towns  and  all  over  the  country.  It  was  the  great  age 
of  the  growth  of  civic  institutions,  and  the  cathedrals 
and  churches  are  a  symptom  of  the  gradual  recovery 
by  the  parochial  clergy  of  their  position  as  the  active 
ministers  of  religion  among  the  people. 

A  less  tangible  but  very  important  indication  of  the 
spirit  of  the  time  is  afforded  by  the  style  of  these  new 
buildings.  The  appearance  of  a  new  style  in  art  is 
a  very  rare  phenomenon,  and  the  certain  indication  of 
the  rising  of  an  exceptional  intellectual  vigour  express- 
ing new  ideas  and  new  conditions  of  life.  The  new 
style  of  architecture  used  in  the  great  buildings  of  the 
period  which  almost  coincides  with  the  reigns  of  John 
and  Henry  III.,  introduced  new  constructive  principles; 
new  ideas  of  design,  in  its  ground-plan  which  everywhere 
replaced  the  short  round-ended  apse  with  a  long  square- 
ended  chancel,  in  length  of  perspective  and  soaring 
height ;  new  conceptions  of  beauty,  in  its  pointed  arches, 
in  the  elaborate  light  and  shade  of  its  moulded  pillars 
and  arches,  and  in  its  sculptured  foliage  of  strong  leafage 
slowly  unfolding  with  the  vigour  of  the  life  of  spring. 
It  is  remarkable  that  while  nearly  every  cathedral  was 
enlarged,  notwithstanding  the  building  fury  of  the  time 
and  the  attraction  of  a  new  style,  the  early  English  buil- 
ders recognised  the  grandeur  of  the  Norman  work,  and 
retained  much  of  it.  Salisbury  is  the  only  entirely  Early- 
Pointed  cathedral,  and  that  was  the  natural  consequence 
of  the  removal  of  the  cathedral  city  from  the  picturesque 
but  too  limited  site  afforded  by  the  venerable  mound 
of  Old  Sarum  to  a  new  site  in  the  adjoining  meadows 
by  the  river-side.  Salisbury  was  early  in  the  style  ; 
the  presbytery  of  Lincoln  Cathedral  may  serve  as  an 
example  of  its  complete  development,  and  there  is 


no   HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


perhaps  nothing  in  the  history  of  architecture  more  re- 
markable in  its  combination  of  engineering  skill,  noble 
architectural  design,  and  beauty  of  detail. 

It  may  be  well  to  explain  the  statement  above  that 
the  secular  clergy  were  recovering  from  the  injury  done 
to  their  revenues  and  influence  by  the  monastic  insti- 
tution, and  a  note  on  the  foundation  of  vicarages  will 
afford  the  explanation.  This  was  the  correction  of  an 
abuse  which  had  grown  up  in  the  previous  century. 
The  Norman  founders  of  the  new  monasteries  had  very 
largely  adopted  the  custom  of  endowing  their  monasteries 
with  the  rectories  in  their  patronage  ;  no  doubt,  in  the 
belief  that  the  monks  would  make  better  provision  for 
the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  parishioners  than  the  secular 
rectors,  and  that  the  surplus  revenues  would  be  better 
employed  in  the  service  of  religion  in  the  hands  of  these 
great  religious  institutions.  But  it  was  found  after  a 
while  that  the  monasteries  considered  that  they  fulfilled 
their  obligations  by  sending  a  clerk  to  conduct  divine 
service  and  do  the  necessary  routine  spiritual  work,  or 
by  putting  a  priest  in  charge  of  the  parish  at  a  small 
stipend.  The  bishops  raised  a  protest  against  this  state 
of  things,  and  obtained  authority  to  insist  that  a  proper 
provision  should  be  made  in  "appropriate"  parishes 
(/>.,  parishes  of  which  the  religious  houses  were  rectors) 
for  the  maintenance  of  a  permanent  parish  priest,  a 
vicar,  a  representative  of  the  rector.  The  usual  previ- 
sion was  a  house  and  portion  of  glebe,  the  small  tithes, 
and  the  fees  and  offerings.  It  is  a  very  important  in- 
dication of  the  revival  of  the  influence  of  the  secular 
clergy  that  in  the  course  of  the  century  this  re-settle- 
ment of  the  appropriate  parishes  was  very  generally 
secured 

The  thirteenth  century  was  also  the  great  age  of  the 


THE  PAPAL  SUPREMACY  iil 

Friars.  The  central  idea  of  the  institution  of  the  Friars 
was  different  from  that  of  the  monks.  The  idea  of 
monachism  was  seclusion  from  the  world  with  a  view  to 
the  cultivation  of  the  spiritual  Ufe  of  the  individual ;  that 
of  the  new  institution  was  the  abandonment  of  the  world 
for  the  sake  of  entire  devotion  to  religious  and  charitable 
ministrations  to  others.  Dominic  founded  an  order  of 
Preaching  Brothers  to  combat  ignorance  and  heresy; 
Francis  an  order  of  men  to  minister  to  the  poor  and 
sick  and  afflicted.  Both  orders  had  the  same  organisa- 
tion :  a  general  of  the  order  in  Rome,  provincials  ruling 
the  order  in  the  various  countries,  wardens  over  the  dis- 
tricts into  which  the  country  was  divided,  and  a  head  of 
each  house.  Both  adopted  the  principle  that  the  order 
should  possess  no  property,  but  should  live  by  the  alms 
of  the  people.  The  Friars  multiplied  rapidly,  spread 
over  Europe,  and  effected  a  great  religious  revival,  which 
may  be  compared  with  that  produced  by  the  labours 
of  Wesley  and  Whitfield  at  a  later  date.  There  were 
two  other  orders,  the  Carmelite  and  Augustinian,  which 
were  less  numerous  and  important  Houses  of  Friars 
were  founded  in  the  suburbs  of  most  of  the  great  towns 
of  England.  The  Friars  cultivated  learning  with  such 
success  that  their  teachers  became  famous  in  all  the 
universities  of  Europe  ;  and  for  two  centuries  played  a 
great  part  in  the  religious  life  of  the  times. 

The  thirteenth  century  was  the  great  age  of  the  School- 
men. Their  system  was  based  upon  the  philosophy  of 
Aristotle,  and  sought  to  prove  the  truth  of  Christian  doc- 
trine by  the  syllogistic  method  of  reasoning.  Alexander 
Hales,  an  Englishman,  was  the  leader  of  the  schoolmen 
(died  1245).  Thomas  Aquinas,  a  Dominican  friar  (died 
1274),  the  author  of  the  Summa  Theologica,  the  greatest 
of  the  works  of  its  day,  and  of  the  Catena  Aurea  and 


112    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


other  works,  was  assigned  tlie  next  place  as  a  theologian 
after  the  four  great  doctors  of  the  West ;  and  Bonaventura, 
a  Franciscan,  the  eighth  place.  Roger  Bacon,  an  English 
Franciscan  friar  (died  1292),  was  the  father  of  physical 
science.  John  Duns  Scotus,  an  Enghshman  (died  1308), 
was  the  great  theologian  of  the  Franciscan  order. 


CHAPTER  ;XII 

THE  REACTION  AGAINST  ROME 

The  Papal  pretensions  reached  their  greatest  height  in  the 
time  of  Boniface  VIII.  (1294-1303),  but  the  Papal  power 
had  already  begun  to  decline.  The  authority  of  the 
Roman  See  had  originally  grown  up  on  the  sympathy  felt 
by  the  churches  and  peoples  of  Europe  with  the  endeavour 
of  a  succession  of  Popes  to  control  the  arbitrary  acts  of 
princes.  But  when  Hildebrand's  grand  idea  of  a  supreme 
spiritual  authority  which  was  to  regulate  the  religious 
affairs  of  Christendom  had  degenerated  into  an  endeavour 
to  make  the  Papacy  a  feudal  sovereignty,  with  the  clergy 
as  its  ministers  and  with  church  property  as  its  domain, 
both  clergy  and  people  began  to  murmur  at  the  usur- 
pation. Very  shortly  the  worldly  ambitions  which  the 
Papacy  developed,  the  abuses  which  the  Popes  intro- 
duced, the  rapacity  with  which  they  seized  upon  the 
revenues  of  the  churches  and  spent  them  upon  personal 
objects,  and  the  scandalous  use  of  spiritual  censures  (ex- 
communications and  interdicts)  in  support  of  temporal 
quarrels,  alienated  the  popular  sympathy,  and  taught  all 
men  that  Popes  were  no  more  to  be  trusted  with  arbi- 
trary power  tban  princes.  Towards  the  close  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  princes  were  able  to  defy  the  pre- 
tensions of  Popes  to  exercise  any  control  over  them ; 
and  the  national  churches,  supported  by  the  princes,  were 


ii4    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


able  to  assert  their  liberties  against  the  claim  of  the  See 
to  treat  them  as  subject  provinces  of  an  Italian  ecclesias- 
tical empire.  Boniface  was  the  last  of  the  Popes  who 
exercised  authority  over  the  temporal  jurisdiction  of 
princes.  With  the  decline  of  the  power  of  Henry  III.  the 
exercise  of  Papal  authority  over  the  crown  of  England 
came  to  an  end.^  Simon  de  Montfort  had  set  the 
example  of  a  peremptory  resistance  to  the  Roman  claims ; 
Edward  took  up  the  policy  of  a  firm  constitutional 
maintenance  of  the  rights  of  the  crown  and  the  national 
Church  as  against  the  Pope,  and  the  rights  of  the  crown 
as  against  the  national  Church.  When  Boniface,  after 
the  battle  of  Falkirk  in  1300,  intervened  at  the  request 
of  the  Scots,  and  exhorted  Edward  to  desist  from  his 
attempts  to  conquer  Scotland,  quoting  evidence  of  its 
ancient  independence  of  England,  and  claiming  to  be 
himself  its  liege  lord,  the  king  brought  the  matter  before 
a  Parliament  at  London ;  that  body,  after  answering  the 
Pope's  arguments,  concluded  by  saying,  that  while  they 
had  justified  their  cause  before  him,  they  did  not  receive 
him  for  their  judge ;  the  crown  of  England  was  free 
and  sovereign ;  they  had  sworn  to  maintain  all  its  royal 
prerogatives,  and  would  never  permit  the  king  himself, 
even  were  he  willing,  to  relinquish  its  independence. 

Throughout  the  fourteenth  century  the  resistance  to 
Rome  was  steadily  kept  up,  and  its  encroachments 
were  gradually  thrust  back,  almost  to  the  limits  which 
the  Conqueror  had  originally  assigned  to  the  Papal  inter- 
vention in  the  affairs  of  England.  In  132 1,  in  the 
reign  of  Edward  II.,  a  statute  was  passed  forbidding  in 
general  terms  the  appealing  to  foreign  courts  for  pleas 
which  might  be  determined  at  home,  an  indirect  blow 

*  No  legates  were  admitted  into  England  after  his  reign. 


THE  REACTION  AGAINST  ROME  115 

at  appeals  to  Rome.  In  the  Parliament  of  17  Ed.  III., 
1344  A.D.,  the  Commons  petitioned  the  king  and  nobles 
to  find  some  remedy  for  the  Papal  abuses,  "  for  that  they 
neither  could  nor  would  any  longer  bear  these  strange 
oppressions,  or  else  to  help  them  to  expel  the  Pope's 
power  out  of  the  realm  by  force."  The  king  issued  a 
proclamation  against  Provisors,  but  it  did  not  put  a  stop 
to  them.  In  1351  a  Statute  of  Provisors  was  passed, 
which  made  it  penal  to  procure  any  presentation  to 
benefices  from  the  court  of  Rome,  and  effectually  secured 
the  rights  of  patrons.  From  the  time  that  Edward  III. 
attained  his  majority  he  ceased  for  forty  years  to  pay 
the  annual  tribute  of  1000  marks  which  King  John  had 
engaged  for  himself  and  his  successors  to  pay ;  and  when 
the  Pope  threatened  to  summon  him  to  Rome  to  answer 
for  his  default,  the  king  laid  the  matter  before  Parliament 
(1367  A.D.),  which  unanimously  replied  that  John  had  no 
power  to  bring  the  kingdom  under  such  servitude  and 
subjection  without  the  consent  of  Parliament;  that  if 
the  Pope  should  attempt  anything  against  the  king, 
the  king  and  all  his  subjects  would  resist  with  all  their 
force  and  power.  In  1376  the  Parliament  of  the 
Jubilee  year  of  Edward  III.'s  reign  drew  up  and  sent 
to  the  Pope  a  bitter  complaint  of  the  injuries  which 
the  kingdom  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  Papal  court, 
and  declared  that  the  Pope's  innovations,  usurpations, 
and  provisors  were  the  cause  of  all  the  plagues,  injuries, 
famine,  and  poverty  of  the  realm  ;  were  more  destructive 
to  it  than  all  the  wars  ;  that  the  taxes  levied  by  the  Pope 
exceeded  five  times  those  paid  to  the  king ;  that  every- 
thing was  venal  in  that  sinful  city  of  Rome,  and  that 
English  lay  patrons  had  learned  simony  and  covetousness 
of  the  Pope. 

Though  this  may  be  exaggerated  language,  it  indicates 


ri6   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


the  bitter  feeling  of  the  nation  against  the  Papal  "  inno- 
vations and  usurpations;"  and  the  frequency  of  the 
allusions  to  them  shows  the  persistency  of  the  feeling. 
The  index  to  Cotton's  Abridgment  of  the  Tower  Records 
gives  sixty- two  such  references  from  i8  Edward  III.  to 
39  Henry  VI. 

The  Statute  of  Mortmain  checked  the  further  acquisi- 
tion of  landed  property  by  the  Church  without  the  royal 
assent.  In  1353  the  Statute  of  Premunire,  which  forbade 
any  Papal  bulls  to  be  introduced  into  England  without 
the  royal  assent,  under  pain  of  outlawry,  confiscation,  and 
banishment,  effectually  curbed  the  interference  of  Rome. 

The  minority  of  Richard  II.,  the  feebleness  of  his 
rule,  and  the  usurped  sovereignty  of  Henry  IV.,  gave 
opportunity  for  the  formation  of  political  parties  and 
the  growth  of  constitutional  government.  The  Royal 
Council  corresponded  to  some  extent  to  a  modern 
Cabinet.  Parliament  exercised  a  certain  control  over 
the  Council.  The  party  of  the  barons  striving  to  main- 
tain their  feudal  privileges  against  the  crown,  and 
jealous  of  the  power  of  the  Church,  allied  itself  with 
the  anti-Church  feeling  which  was  rising  among  the 
people.  The  number  of  men  of  noble  family  in  the 
Episcopate,  and  the  great  part  which  they  took  in 
politics,  is  a  remarkable  feature  of  the  time. 

In  137 1,  Parliament,  during  a  temporary  political 
success  of  the  Baronial  party,  aimed  a  blow  at  the 
Church  party  by  declaring  prelates  unfit  to  hold  offices 
of  State.  William  of  VVykeham,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
who  was  chancellor,  and  others,  were  in  consequence 
dismissed  for  a  short  time  ;  it  was  the  only  period  from 
the  Saxon  conversion  to  the  seventeenth  century  that 
some  of  the  principal  offices  of  State  were  not  held  by 
clerics. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


THE  LOLLARDS 

The  Continental  nations  had  been  troubled  since  the 
beginning  of  the  eleventh  century  by  heresies  mixed  up 
with  political  opinions  subversive  of  all  order  in  Church 
and  State,  held  by  organised  bodies  of  men  ready  to  break 
out  into  open  rebellion.  The  Cathari  in  Italy  and  France 
at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  the  Waldenses 
and  Albigenses  in  the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth,  had 
caused  great  popular  commotions.  This  sporadic  fanati- 
cism broke  out  in  England  in  the  fourteenth  century 
under  the  name  of  Lollardism.  A™o"g  the  doctrines 
which  the  Lollards  maintained  and  taught  were  such 
fanatical  extravagances  as  these :  that  the  Church  is  the 
synagogue  of  Satan,  and  that  its  baptism  put  a  child  in 
a  worse  condition  than  before  ;  they  denied  the  necessity 
for  episcopal  ordination,  and  ordained  ministers  for  them- 
selves, maintaining  that  every  Christian  man  and  woman, 
being  without  sin,  is  entitled  to  consecrate  the  Eucharist ; 
they  maintained  that  cohabitation  by  mutual  consent 
constituted  a  lawful  marriage  without  the  forms  of  the 
Church ;  that  all  ought  to  marry,  or  to  have  an  intention 
to  marry,  if  they  desired  to  be  saved,  for  otherwise  they 
are  guilty  of  murder  by  preventing  the  holy  posterity 
which  should  people  the  New  Jerusalem ;  they  held  that 
neither  the  Lord's  day  nor  any  other  of  the  Church's 
117 


ii8    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


festivals  should  be  kept  holy.  With  these  religious 
extravagances  were  combined  opinions  on  civil  govern- 
ment which,  if  carried  out,  would  have  ended  in  anarchy ; 
as  that  all  authorities  in  Church  and  State  hold  their 
authority  on  the  tenure  of  grace,  so  that  if  they  fall 
from  grace  they  forfeit  their  title  to  be  obeyed ;  this  left 
it  open  to  any  one  who  chose  to  fancy  that  his  superior 
had  "  fallen  from  grace  "  to  refuse  any  longer  to  obey 
him,  child  to  obey  parent,  servant  master,  subject  sove- 
reign, Christian  his  priest  or  bishop. 

The  general  discontent  with  arbitrary  rule  and  with  the 
manifold  corruptions  of  the  Church  led  many  to  extend  a 
general  sympathy  and  countenance  to  the  Lollards  who 
were  far  from  holding  their  extreme  views.  The  party 
of  the  nobles  sought  the  political  support  of  this  wide- 
spread feeling  by  the  expression  of  a  general  sympathy 
with  the  new  reformers. 

The  most  remarkable  for  twenty  years  among  the 
leaders  of  these  new  opinions  was  John  Wiclif,  a  Cam- 
bridge divine  of  considerable  reputation  for  ability  and 
learning.  About  1369  he  published  a  work  Z>e  Dovihiio 
Divino,  which  contained  the  doctrine  that  "dominion 
depends  on  grace,"  noticed  above.  He  denounced  the 
Pope  as  Anti-Christ,  attacked  the  wealth  and  pomp  of 
the  prelates,  the  claims  of  the  clergy  to  exemption  from 
secular  jurisdiction,  their  ignorance,  self-indulgence,  and 
neglect  of  preaching.  He  advocated  the  resumption  by 
the  temporal  lords  of  the  church  endowments,  which  were 
abused.  And  all  this  he  did  not  only  in  learned  volumes 
in  Latin,  but  by  circulating  among  the  middle  class  tracts 
written  in  a  popular  and  striking  style  in  vigorous  English. 

He  adopted  another  mode  of  spreading  his  opinions 
by  the  agency  of  a  kind  of  order  of  itinerant  preachers. 
He  sought  out  suitable  men,  whom  he  taught  and  trained 


THE  LOLLARDS 


19 


so  far  as  to  enable  them  to  preach  the  great  truths  of 
rehgion,  and  the  peculiar  views  which  he  himself  held,  in 
a  homely  and  popular  style.  His  "Poor  Priests"  seem 
at  first  to  have  been  ordained  men.  He  provided  in 
some  way  for  their  maintenance,  and  forbade  them  to 
imitate  the  mendicancy  of  the  Friars.  He  sent  them 
forth  clad  in  a  long  russet  robe,  with  staff  in  hand  and  a 
copy  of  the  Gospels  at  their  girdle,  to  teach  and  preach 
through  town  and  country,  as  the  avowed  rivals  and 
opponents  of  the  Friars.  They  were  never  numerous, 
and  did  not  long  continue  their  work,  being  condemned 
and  silenced  by  the  London  Council  of  1382  a.d.  It 
was  a  very  interesting  experiment,  worthy  of  study  in 
these  days  when  we  are  trying  to  organise  new  missionary 
agencies. 

His  greatest  work,  which  largely  occupied  the  later 
years  of  his  life,  and  has  kept  his  name  in  honourable 
memory,  was  his  translation  of  the  Bible  from  the 
Vulgate  into  English.  It  is  a  popular  error  that  the 
Bible  was  previously  a  sealed  book.  In  earlier  times 
those  who  could  read  at  all  could  read  Latin,  it  was  the 
common  tongue  of  all  learning,  and  the  Vulgate  was 
accessible  to  them.  Portions  of  the  Bible  most  useful 
for  popular  edification.  Gospels,  Psalms,  abridgments  of 
the  Bible  history,  had  been  translated  into  English 
centuries  before.  English  was  just  now  becoming  a 
literary  language.  Poets  like  Langland,  Gower,  and 
Chaucer  were  writing  in  it.  In  1362  it  was  substituted 
for  French  in  the  law  courts,  and  the  king's  opening 
speech  to  Parliament  was  delivered  in  English.  In  short, 
the  time  had  come  for  a  translation  of  the  Bible,  and 
Wiclif  has  the  merit  of  having  been,  with  the  aid  of  col- 
laborators, the  first  to  accomplish  the  great  work. 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.  the  Lollards  continued  to 


120   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


give  great  cause  for  anxiety  to  the  government  They 
were  very  numerous  among  the  people,  and  were  strongly 
represented  in  the  House  of  Commons.  In  order  to 
overawe  them,  an  Act  de  heretico  comburendo — for  the 
burning  of  heretics — was  passed  in  1400-1  a.d.,  and 
Sawtree,  a  London  priest,  who  was  one  of  their  most 
conspicuous  leaders,  was  condemned  and  executed  under 
it  the  following  year.  In  1404  a.d.,  in  answer  to  a 
demand  for  supplies  for  the  prosecution  of  the  French 
war,  the  Commons  proposed  to  the  king  to  confiscate 
the  revenues  of  the  Church,  which  were  sufficient,  they 
alleged,  to  support  15  earls,  1500  knights,  6200  esquires, 
to  maintain  100  hospitals,  and  to  leave  a  handsome  sum 
to  the  king's  exchequer.  It  was  said  that  100,000 
Lollards  were  ready  to  rise  in  insurrection.  Sir  John 
Oldcastle,  Lord  Cobham,  who  was  regarded  as  their 
leader,  tried  in  1415  a.d.  to  excite  a  rebellion,  and 
being  captured,  was  executed  under  the  recent  Act  de 
heretico,  in  141 7.  Whether  he  is  to  be  regarded  as  a 
traitor  or  as  a  martyr  was  and  is  still  disputed.  "  Per- 
haps we  shall  most  safely  conclude  from  the  tenor  of 
history  that  his  doctrinal  creed  was  far  sounder  than 
the  principles  which  guided  either  his  moral  or  his 
political  conduct."  ^ 

The  French  wars,  reopened  by  Henry  V.,  and  after 
his  reign  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  absorbed  the  national 
interest ;  the  doctrines  of  Lollardism  lingered  among 
the  people,  but  the  power  of  the  Lollards  as  a  political 
party  vanished  away. 

In  the  fourteenth  century  the  kingdom  advanced 
rapidly  in  wealth  and  in  luxury.  Art  developed  from 
the  vigorous  but  severe  Early  English  style  into  the 

'  Const.  Hist,  of  England,  iii.  87,  Bishop  (Stubbs)  of  Oxford. 


THE  LOLLARDS 


121 


elegant  luxuriance  of  the  Decorated.  Many  of  the 
cathedrals  were  added  to,  and  many  churches  built 
in  a  style  which  is  easily  recognised  by  the  flowing 
tracery  of  its  windows,  the  geometrical  outline  of  its 
mouldings,  and  the  luxuriance  of  its  sculptured  foliage, 
in  which  the  stiff  acanthus  foliage  of  the  thirteenth 
century  has  unfolded  into  summer  leafage  of  all  kinds 
copied  from  nature.  A  school  of  sculpture  had  arisen 
which  gave  the  human  figure  with  a  certain  conven- 
tionality of  manner,  but  with  a  creditable  knowledge  of 
anatomy,  elegance  of  pose,  skilful  drapery,  and  force  and 
beauty  in  the  heads. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


THE  REFORMING  COUNCILS 

In  the  fifteenth  century  there  was  a  great  absence  of 
original  thought  and  of  religious  zeal.  Its  most  marked 
feature,  perhaps,  was  the  growing  impatience  under  the 
prevalence  of  ecclesiastical  abuses — there  was  not  much 
question  about  doctrines — and  the  great  events  of  eccle- 
siastical history  are  the  attempts  to  obtain  a  general 
reform  of  them,  at  the  three  Councils  of  Pisa  (1409), 
Constance  (1414),  and  Basle  (143 1). 

The  Council  of  Pisa  was  summoned  to  deliver  the 
Church  from  the  schism  and  scandal  occasioned  by  the 
existence  of  the  two  rival  lines  of  Popes,  which  had 
existed  since  1378,  one  seated  at  Rome,  the  other  at 
Avignon,  one  supported  by  about  one  half  of  Europe, 
the  other  by  the  other  half  The  Council  deposed  both 
Popes  and  elected  a  third ;  but  the  deposed  Popes  con- 
tinued their  pretensions  and  still  found  supporters  ;  so 
that  the  result  of  the  action  of  the  Council  was  to  add  a 
third  line  of  Popes,  and  all  three  continued  till  1414. 
In  1410  the  third  Pope  (Alexander  V.)  died,  and  his 
successor,  John  XXIII.,  reluctantly  summoned  another 
Council  to  meet  at  Constance. 

The  Council  of  Constance  had  been  carefully  planned, 
so  as  to  be  independent  of  Roman  influences ;  it  was  to 
meet  out  of  Italy ;  as  many  learned  doctors  as  prelates 


THE  REFORMING  COUNCILS  123 


were  summoned ;  the  Emperor  presided  over  it ;  and  it 
voted  by  nations,  so  as  to  neutralise  the  disproportionate 
number  of  Itahan  Monsignori.  The  first  act  of  the 
Council  was  to  depose  all  the  Popes  and  make  a  clear 
field.  But  instead  of  proceeding  at  once  to  settle  reforms, 
as  the  English  and  German  nations  desired,  the  Council 
made  the  blunder  of  conceding  to  the  Italian  wish  to  give 
precedence  to  the  election  of  a  Pope.  The  new  Pope, 
Martin  V.,  acted  as  had  been  anticipated.  He  used  all 
his  power  and  influence  to  evade  any  real  reformation  ; 
played  off  the  nations  one  against  another ;  made  separate 
concordats  with  them,  and  concluded  the  Council  as 
soon  as  possible.  One  thing,  however,  the  Council  did 
which  is  of  permanent  importance — it  passed  a  unani- 
mous decree,  to  which  Pope  Martin  gave  his  adhesion, 
that  a  Council  is  above  tlie  Pope :  "  Every  lawfully  con- 
voked CEcumenical  Council  representing  the  Church  de- 
rives its  authority  immediately  from  Christ :  and  every 
one,  the  Pope  included,  is  subject  to  it  in  matters  of 
faith,  in  the  heaUng  of  schism,  and  in  the  reformation 
of  the  Church."  The  legates  of  Eugenius  IV.  (the 
successor  of  Martin)  also  swore  to  this  decree  before 
they  were  admitted  to  preside  in  his  name  over  the  next 
Council  at  Basle. 

The  Council  of  Basle  sat  for  three  and  a  half  years, 
and  drew  up  schemes  of  reform,  but  at  the  end  of  that 
time  it  split  in  two.  Part  of  it  met  under  the  Pope  at 
Ferrara,  the  remainder  refused  to  remove,  and  continued 
its  sittings  at  Basle ;  and  the  Council  came  to  nothing. 

On  this  failure  the  Christian  sovereigns  took  the 
question  of  reform  into  their  own  hands.  The  King 
of  France  summoned  a  great  assembly  of  the  nobility, 
clergy,  and  others,  which  agreed  to  continue  to  recog- 
nise the  Pope,  but  to  put  in  force  the  reforming  decrees 


124    HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 


of  the  late  Council.  Thus  originated  what  is  known  as 
the  Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Bourges,  the  charter  of  the 
Gallican  liberties.  The  Emperor  of  Germany  and  the 
Imperial  Diet  took  a  very  similar  course.  But  the 
Popes  astutely  negotiated  with  the  sovereigns  separately, 
and  before  very  long  regained  many  of  the  advantages 
which  they  had  lost.  On  the  whole,  the  Church  re- 
lapsed into  its  old  condition.  In  Rome  especially, 
from  1464  to  1503,  a  succession  of  Popes — Paul  II., 
Sixtus  IV.,  Innocent  VIII.,  and  Alexander  VI. — shocked 
Christendom  by  the  scandal  of  their  vicious  lives. 

The  style  of  architecture  in  the  fifteenth  century  was  in 
its  main  features  the  same  as  in  the  fourteenth,  but  with 
some  alterations  in  the  proportions  of  the  buildings  and 
in  the  ornamental  details.  The  architects  seem  to  have 
aimed  at  producing  a  light,  spacious,  unencumbered  in- 
terior ;  the  columns  are  sometimes  very  thin,  the  windows 
are  large,  and,  when  filled  with  painted  glass,  were  the 
principal  decoration  ;  the  flowing  tracery  of  the  previous 
style  is  abandoned,  and  rigid  perpendicular  mullions 
divide  the  window  from  top  to  bottom,  the  upper  part 
being  again  subdivided  into  arched  compartments,  all 
finished  with  arched  and  cusped  heads.  The  prevalence 
of  strong  vertical  lines  gives  the  style  its  distinctive  name 
of  Perpendicular.  In  later  examples  the  roofs  are  often 
of  low  pitch,  elaborately  framed,  richly  moulded  and 
carved,  and  covered  with  lead;  where  the  roofs  are 
groined,  it  is  often  with  fan-tracery.  The  arches  are 
comparatively  low  and  often  four-centred,  the  mouldings 
broad  and  shallow.    It  is  the  age  of  noble  towers. 


CHAPTER  XV 


A  SUMMARY  OF  THE  MEDIEVAL  PERIOD 

We  have  seen  how  much  the  Church  had  done  to 
form  and  mould  our  national  life.  It  gave  to  our  rude 
English  forefathers  not  only  the  inestimable  blessing  of 
Christianity,  but  it  also  introduced  among  them  the 
law,  literature,  art,  and  arts  of  life,  of  a  more  advanced 
social  condition.  In  a  word,  it  trained  them  up  into 
Christian  civilisation.  It  prepared  the  way  for  the  union 
of  the  Heptarchic  princedoms  into  the  kingdom  of 
England.  The  Church  grew  and  prospered  with  the 
growth  and  prosperity  of  the  nation,  and  was  an  impor- 
tant factor  in  that  growth.  In  ages  of  arbitrary  kings 
and  unlettered  barons,  the  Church  took  the  place  of  a 
cultured  middle  class,  and  it  was  the  national  champion 
of  the  commonalty.  Throughout  the  Middle  Ages  the 
Church  still  supplied  the  nation  with  its  ministers  of 
State,  ambassadors,  and  judges ;  its  schools  and  univer- 
sities ;  its  lawyers,  physicians,  men  of  science  ;  its  philo- 
sophers, historians,  and  poets ;  its  systematic  relief  of 
the  poor,  its  hospitals  for  the  sick,  its  alms-houses  for 
the  helpless.  The  Church  was  among  the  foremost  in 
those  national  movements  which  wrung  the  principles 
of  constitutional  government  from  the  crown,  and 
alone  in  defending  the  poor  from  oppression,  and  de- 
manding for  them  the  consideration  due  to  a  common 


126    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


brotherhood  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  Church  was  the  only 
ladder  by  which  the  poor  man  of  natural  ability  might 
rise  to  be  the  equal  of  princes. 

The  organisation  of  the  Churcli  in  Saxon  times  had 
been  modelled  on  the  actual  civil  condition  of  the 
people.  Each  of  the  Heptarchic  kingdoms  formed  a 
diocese,  and  when  the  dioceses  were  subdivided,  the 
partition  followed  the  lines  of  the  great  tribal  subdivi- 
sions; the  rectories  were  the  estates  of  the  landlords, 
or  the  townships  of  the  freeholders,  and  when  the  manors 
were  subdivided,  as  population  increased  and  waste 
lands  were  brought  into  cultivation,  new  manors  became 
new  parishes.  The  formation  of  parishes  was  probably 
complete  by  the  time  of  the  Conquest,  at  which  epoch 
there  were  about  twenty  dioceses,  including  the  Welsh 
Sees,  and  about  8000  parishes.  The  wisdom  of  these 
primitive  arrangements  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  they 
lasted  without  change  through  all  the  political,  ecclesias- 
tical, and  social  revolutions  of  about  a  thousand  years. 

The  constructive  work  of  the  ages,  from  the  Conquest 
to  the  Reformation,  was  the  addition  of  supplementary 
agencies.  The  number  of  the  monastic  houses  was  greatly 
increased  by  the  Normans  of  the  Conquest.  It  was  the 
fashion  of  that  time  for  a  great  noble  to  found  a  monas- 
tery, usually  in  some  wild  remote  district  of  his  new 
possessions,  just  as  in  earlier  times  it  was  the  custom  for 
the  Saxon  Thane  to  build  a  church  on  his  manor.  The 
earlier  monasteries  were  religious  colonies  scattered  over 
the  country,  which  helped  largely  in  civilising  and  chris- 
tianising it.  The  wealth  of  the  monasteries  grew  not 
so  much  from  subsequent  donations — pious  benevolence 
soon  turned  into  other  channels — as  from  the  agricul- 
tural skill  of  the  monks  in  cuhivating  the  wild  districts 
originally  bestowed  upon  them.     In  the  three  later 


A  SUMMARY  OF  THE  MEDIMVAL  PERIOD  127 

centuries  of  their  existence,  they  were  religious  corpora- 
tions learned,  wealthy  and  powerful,  who  acted  as  a 
counterpoise  to  the  power  of  the  secular  barons,  and 
helped  largely  to  maintain  learning  and  culture,  and  the 
dignity  and  influence  of  religion. 

The  Friars  were  a  considerable,  and  probably  on  the 
whole  a  valuable,  addition  to  the  former  agencies. 
Nearly  all  the  great  towns  of  mediaeval  England  had 
one  or  more  convents  of  Friars.  The  Dominicans 
often  built  a  large  church,  specially  arranged  for  preach- 
ing, and  attracted  large  congregations ;  the  Franciscans 
ministered  especially  to  the  poor  and  afflicted.  The 
Friars  went  on  circuit  also,  by  two  and  two,  at  regular 
intervals  round  the  neighbouring  villages,  preaching  in 
the  village  churches  or  churchyards,  and  visiting  the 
people  of  all  classes.  The  two  great  faults  in  their  con- 
stitution were  (i)  their  independence  of  Episcopal  con- 
trol, which  left  the  Friars  to  be  the  rivals  of  the  parish 
priests,  instead  of  a  co-ordinated  agency ;  and  (2)  their 
dependence  for  maintenance  on  the  alms  of  the  people 
to  whom  they  ministered,  which  drove  them  to  practise 
the  arts  of  popularity-hunting,  by  which  a  man  loses  both 
self-respect  and  the  respect  of  those  whose  favour  he 
courts. 

To  complete  the  view  of  the  ecclesiastical  machinery 
of  the  country  districts,  there  must  be  added  a  number 
of  free  chapels  intended  for  the  use  of  groups  of  popu- 
lation at  a  distance  from  the  parish  churches.  It  is 
probable  that  these  were  technically  chantry  chapels. 
There  were  great  legal  difiSculties  in  the  way  of  the 
building  of  a  new  parish  church,  and  there  is  hardly  an 
instance  of  it  for  centuries,  but  nothing  more  than  the 
bishop's  license  was  needed  for  the  building  of  a  chantry 
chapel  j  and  under  this  name  not  only  hamlet  chapels, 


128   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


but  chapels  of  ease  for  important  new  groups  of  popula- 
tion were  easily  provided. 

A  remarkable  feature  of  the  mediaeval  ecclesiastical 
organisation  was  the  great  number  of  the  parishes  into 
which  the  towns  were  divided,  each  with  its  more  or 
less  large  and  handsome  parish  church.  This  is  illus- 
trated by  all  and  each  of  our  old  towns,  from  London  to 
York,  from  Norwich  to  Bristol.  Each  of  them  to  the 
approaching  traveller  in  those  days  presented  a  pic- 
turesque architectural  group  of  walls  and  gates  rising 
out  of  the  green  meadows  which  grew  up  to  the  edge 
of  the  moat,  and,  rising  above  the  walls,  a  grove  of 
towers  and  spires.  Colchester,  for  example,  had  its  io8 
acres  within  the  old  Roman  walls  divided  into  eight 
parishes,  and  for  the  whole  population  of  about  2000 
souls  within  the  borough  and  liberties  there  were  by  the 
early  part  of  the  fourteenth  century  no  less  than  sixteen 
churches  and  parish  priests  provided.  Besides  there 
were  within  the  walls  the  castle  chapel,  a  Franciscan 
friary,  a  hospital  worked  by  Critched  friars,  and  a  leper 
hospital,  a  guild  chapel,  and  ten  chantries  distributed 
among  the  churches ;  just  outside  the  walls  a  great 
Benedictine  abbey,  an  Augustinian  priory  with  a  great 
church  adjoining  the  south  gate,  and  a  hermitage  and 
chapel  at  a  little  distance  out  of  the  town. 

Every  great  castle  had  its  chapel  and  its  chaplains. 
Some  of  the  great  nobles  had  a  considerable  chapel 
establishment  of  dean  and  chaplains  and  singing  men 
and  boys,  of  which  St  George's  Chapel,  Windsor,  is 
almost  the  only  one  remaining ;  and  after  the  example 
of  the  royal  chapel  the  nobleman's  chaplains  assisted  in 
the  administration  of  such  of  the  lord's  business  as  re- 
quired clerkly  attainments.  Later,  every  great  manor- 
house  had  its  chapel,  where  the  household  attended  for 


A  SUMMARY  OF  THE  MEDIEVAL  PERIOD  129 


daily  prayers,  and  a  chaplain  who  ministered  to  them ; 
only  they  all  went  to  the  parish  church  on  certain  great 
festivals.  By  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  knights 
and  gentlemen,  and  even  wealthy  yeomen  and  traders, 
had  their  domestic  chaplain. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  devotional 
munificence  began  to  show  itself  in  the  foundation  of 
chantries  for  one  or  more  priests  to  say  prayers  daily 
for  the  welfare  of  the  members,  living  and  departed, 
of  a  particular  family.  The  chantry  chapel  was  usually 
formed  within  the  existing  church,  e.g.,  at  the  east  end 
of  an  aisle  parclosed  off  with  traceried  wooden  screens, 
or  was  an  addition  to  the  existing  church,  and  opened 
into  it. 

The  Guilds,  which  were  so  universal  in  those  ages, 
were  all  organised  on  a  religious  basis,  and  frequently 
had  a  chantry  and  a  chantry  priest  to  pray  for  the  welfare 
of  the  members.  By  these  means  pious  people  endea- 
voured to  remedy  the  discrepancy  between  the  number  of 
parish  priests  and  the  increasing  number  of  parishioners 
under  their  charge,  and  to  obtain  greater  and  peculiar 
pastoral  care,  by  engaging  the  services  of  a  clergyman 
specially  bound  to  them. 

This  vast  machinery  appears  the  more  remarkable 
when  it  is  compared  with  the  population  of  the  country. 
At  the  time  of  the  Conquest  the  people  numbered  little 
more  than  two  millions,  and  in  the  time  of  Henry  "VIII. 
they  had  not  reached  five  millions.  What  was  left  of 
this  ecclesiastical  machinery  by  the  spoliations  of  the 
Reformation  period  was  made  to  do  duty  down  to  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century,  when  the  population 
had  grown  to  fourteen  millions. 

Under  this  great  organisation,  in  the  midst  of  the 
great  events  of  Church  history  which  have  been  re- 

s.  T,  I 


I30   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


corded,  what  was  the  actual  religious  condition  of  the 
people  ? 

The  systematic  religious  instruction  of  the  people 
was  not  neglected.  If,  in  the  depressed  condition  of  the 
parochial  clergy  of  the  twelfth  century,  there  was  any 
slackness  in  teaching,  there  was  certainly  no  lack  of 
zeal  on  their  part  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  the  new 
Orders  of  Friars  both  stimulated  and  supplemented  the 
diligence  of  the  parish  priests.  In  1281  a.d.,  Archbishop 
Peccham  issued  the  celebrated  Constitutions  of  the  Synod 
of  Oxford  which  are  called  by  his  name.  The  loth  canon 
says,  "We  order  that  every  priest  having  the  charge  of  a 
flock  do  four  times  in  each  year  {i.e.,  once  each  quarter), 
on  one  or  more  solemn  feast-days,  instruct  the  people  in 
the  vulgar  tongue,  simply  and  without  any  subtle  distinc- 
tions, on  the  Creed,  Ten  Commandments,  Evangelical 
Precepts,  seven  works  of  mercy,  seven  deadly  sins  with 
their  offshoots,  seven  principal  virtues,  and  seven  sacra- 
ments," and  sets  forth  in  considerable  detail  the  points 
on  which  the  people  are  to  be  instructed.  These  Con- 
stitutions are  referred  to  constantly  in  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries  as  the  foundation  of  the  existing 
practice  in  the  Church,  and  similar  decrees  were  repeated 
in  Diocesan  Synods.  Archbishop  Thoresby  of  York, 
in  1357  A.D.,  commissioned  a  monk  to  draw  out  in 
English  an  exposition  of  the  Creed,  Commandments, 
seven  deadly  sins,  &c.,  to  be  sent  to  each  of  his  priests. 
Many  manuals  of  the  kind  were  published  for  the  use 
of  the  clergy:  the  Fars  Occuli  Sacerdotis,  c.  1350  a.d.  ; 
very  like  it  the  Pupillus  Occuli,  1385  a.d.  ;  the  Occulus 
Sacerdotis  ;  numerous  MSS.  of  these  still  exist,  and  there 
were  early  printed  editions.  The  Speculum  Christiani  of 
John  Walton,  fourteenth  century,  has  the  peculiarity  of 
prefacing  each  division  of  the  work  with  a  rhyming  motto 


A  SUMMARY  OF  THE  MEDIEVAL  PERIOD  131 


giving  the  chief  points  to  be  remembered.  The  book 
was  Englished  by  John  Bird,  fifteenth  century,  and  there 
are  several  printed  editions  of  it. 

There  are  numerous  tracts  on  the  art  of  preaching 
of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  and  courses 
of  sermons  for  the  use  of  preachers,  as  by  Grosseteste, 
Bishop  of  Lincoln,  in  the  thirteenth,  and  Fitzralph,  Arch- 
bishop of  Armagh,  in  the  fourteentli  century ;  and  by 
John  Felton  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  fifty- 
eight  in  number,  of  which  there  are  many  MSS.  The 
Zil>er  Festivalis,  a  course  of  sermons  for  Sundays  and 
holy-days,  by  John  Mirk,  is  of  about  the  same  date.  A 
Liber  Festivalis  founded  upon  Mirk's  book  was  printed 
twice  by  each  of  the  first  great  printers,  Caxton,  Wynkyn 
de  Worde,  and  Pynson.  Preachers'  helps  were  already 
known,  as  the  Summa  Predicantium  of  F"riar  J.  Brom- 
yard, about  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century ; 
a  similar  work  by  Alan  of  Lynn,  a  Carmelite  Friar, 
and  several  other  similar  works.  Concordances  and 
subject  indexes  were  multiplied  in  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century. 

That  instructions  were  actually  given  and  sermons 
preached,  was  ascertained  by  the  inquiries  concerning 
every  parish  at  the  bishop's  visitation;  e.g.,  in  the  first 
fifteen  years  of  the  fourteenth  century,  in  the  register  of 
Bishop  Stapledon  of  Exeter. 

The  people  must  have  been  made  familiar  with  the 
great  facts  of  religion  by  their  pictorial  representation 
on  church  walls  and  windows  and  in  block  books,  by 
miracle  plays  and  popular  customs,  and  in  other  ways. 

In  trying  to  estimate  the  moral  condition  of  the  people, 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Mediaeval  Church  main- 
tained a  system  of  discipline  which  took  account  of 
men's  regular  observance  of  the  external  duties  of  religion, 


J 32    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


and  which  visited  scandalous  vice  with  penalties.  In 
times  when  men  recognised  its  authority,  respected  its 
admonicions,  and  submitted  to  its  corrections,  the  result 
must  have  been  favourable  to  the  well-being  of  the 
people.  It  went  further  than  that ;  it  cultivated  con- 
fidential pastoral  relations  between  the  man  who  had 
the  care  of  souls  and  the  souls  under  his  care  which 
tended  to  growth  in  holiness.  Church  discipline  is  a 
by-word  with  us,  but  the  effect  of  the  paternal  discipline 
of  a  wise  father  over  his  houseiiold  may  afford  a  standard 
by  which  it  is  possible  to  estimate  the  effect  of  the  spiri- 
tual discipline  of  the  earlier  Church.  On  the  whole, 
then,  the  number  of  clergymen  engaged  in  pastoral 
ministration  was  very  large ;  their  ministrations  were 
fairly  efficient ;  and  it  is  probable  that  a  much  larger 
proportion  of  the  people  knew  the  truths  of  religion, 
acknowledged  its  obligations,  and  made  some  endeavour 
to  live  accordingly,  than  at  the  present  time. 

There  are  a  considerable  number  of  popular  works 
on  morals,  adapted  to  lead  people  to  cure  their  faults 
and  cultivate  virtues.  A  French  book  on  "  Virtues  and 
Vices,"  written  in  1279,  was  translated  in  numerous  ver- 
sions, both  poetical  and  prose,  in  the  subsequent  cen- 
tury ;  the  Ayenbite  of  Inwit  (Remorse  of  Conscience)  and 
Richard  of  Hampole's  Prick  of  Conscience  represent  it ; 
Chaucer's  "  Poore  Parson's  Tale  "  is  a  free  adaptation 
of  portions  of  it,  and  his  use  of  it  helps  to  show  the  popu- 
larity of  this  kind  of  teaching.  A  considerable  number 
of  "  Manuals  of  the  Duties  of  a  Parish  Priest "  existed, 
and  indicate,  just  as  the  number  of  similar  works  pub- 
lished during  the  last  half  century  do,  that  it  was  a  time 
in  which  the  parochial  clergy  were  interested  in  their 
duties.  One  of  these  in  English  verse,  probably  of  the 
first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century,  translated  from  a 


A  SUMMARY  OF  THE  MEDIEVAL  PERIOD  133 


Latin  original  by  John  Mirk,  Canon  of  Lilleshall,  pub- 
lished by  the  Early  English  Text  Society,  is  a  very 
sensible,  and,  for  its  time,  useful  book. 

The  disadvantage  of  the  use  of  Latin  in  the  services 
of  the  Church  vvas  not  overlooked ;  books  of  private 
devotion,  called  Prymers,  were  extensively  used,  some 
partly  in  Latin,  pardy  in  English,  others  entirely  in 
English.  The  earliest  known  Prymer  entirely  in  English 
is  of  the  date  1410.  These  Prymers  contained  trans- 
lations of  matins  and  evensong,  the  Creed,  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  Ten  Commandments,  the  Penitential  Psalms, 
the  Litany,  and  other  devotions  and  prayers.  The 
Epistles  and  Gospels  at  Mass  were  read  in  English, 
and  there  were  little  books  which  contained  the  Latin 
of  that  service  with  translations  of  portions  of  it,  to  help 
the  devout  to  follow  and  join  in  the  worship. 

It  is  convenient  to  gather  together  here  a  brief 
summary  of  some  of  the  chief  errors  of  the  Mediaeval 
Church  which  were  abandoned  at  the  Reformation. 
The  Papal  claims  are  so  involved  in  the  history,  that 
they  have  been  dealt  with  already  in  various  places 
(see  pp.  74,  113-116). 

The  Cultus  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary.— The  as- 
sumption of  the  Virgin  Mary  to  heaven  at  her  death  is  first 
found  mentioned  by  Sophronius  in  the  fifth  century  as 
a  doubtful  tradition.  It  was  not  till  the  twelfth  century 
that  some  canons  of  Lyons,  during  a  vacancy  of  the  See, 
instituted  a  festival  in  honour  of  her  Conception.  St. 
Bernard  wrote  against  it  as  a  "novelty,"  an  "error," 
and  a  "  superstition,"  arguing  that  only  our  Blessed  Lord 
was  conceived  without  sin ;  but  from  that  time  the 
opinion  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  began  to  be 
entertained.     Duns  Scotus  in  the  fourteenth  century 


134    HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


argued  in  favour  of  it  as  a  scholastic  proposition ; 
Thomas  Aquinas  opposed  it.  Scotus  was  a  Franciscan, 
Aquinas  a  Dominican ;  the  two  orders  took  up  the  con- 
troversy, and  the  whole  Church  was  ranged  on  one  side 
or  the  other.  The  Council  of  London  in  1328  ordered 
the  festival  to  be  observed.  Pope  Pms  IX.  first  declared 
the  doctrine  to  be  de  fide  in  1854  a.d.  Throughout  the 
thirteenth  and  following  centuries  an  excessive  venera- 
tion was  paid  to  the  Virgin,  prayers  were  offered  to  her, 
she  was  regarded  as  the  mediatrix  between  man  and  her 
Divine  Son. 

Transubstantiation. — The  early  Church  believed  in  a 
presence  of  Christ  in  the  Sacrament  without  defining  the 
mode  of  the  presence.  The  Scholastic  Philosophy, 
attempting  to  define  mysteries  and  commend  them  to 
the  reason,  began  the  controversy  as  to  the  mode  of  the 
presence  in  the  early  half  of  the  ninth  century,  and 
gradually  elaborated  a  theory  in  harmony  with  the  current 
philosopliy,  which  distinguished  the  accideiiis  of  a  thing, 
as  its  density,  colour,  taste,  &c.,  from  the  substance  wiiich 
underlies  all  its  accidents.  It  was  not  till  the  fourth 
Lateran  Council,  12 15  a.d.,  that  the  doctrine  was  autho- 
ritatively sanctioned  that  the  bread  and  wine,  "while 
retaining  all  the  accidents  of  bread  and  wine,  have  their 
substance  transubstantiated  into  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ." 

Communion  in  one  kind. — In  the  eleventh  ceniury 
the  custom  began  of  dipping  the  bread  into  the  wine, 
and  so  administering  the  Sacrament.  The  Council  of 
Claremont  in  1095,  and  Pope  Paschal  in  mo,  forbade 
the  practice  except  in  special  cases.  The  practice  was 
forbidden  in  England  by  the  Council  of  London,  1175. 
Anselm  was  the  first  to  afifirm  that  the  whole  Christ  was 
taken  under  either  species,  and  Robert  PuUeyn  ( 1 1 20  a.d.  ) 


A  SUMMARY  OF  THE  MEDIEVAL  PERIOD  135 


gives  the  injunction  tliat  "  the  flesh  of  Christ  alone  should 
be  distributed  to  laymen."  Not  till  the  thirteenth  century 
did  this  doctrine  come  into  common  use.  Thomas 
Aquinas  argued  in  favour  of  it ;  Bonaventura  urged  it  out 
of  reverence,  for  fear  of  spilling  the  wine.  It  was  not 
authoritatively  sanctioned  till  the  Council  of  Constance 
(1415);  but  the  Council  of  Basle,  in  the  treaty  of  peace 
with  the  Bohemians  known  as  the  Compactata,  allowed 
the  communion  to  be  administered  in  both  kinds  to  such 
of  their  adults  as  should  desire  it  (1433). 

Purgatory. — Speculations  about  the  condition  of  the 
good  and  wicked  in  the  intermediate  state  began  to 
assume  prominence  in  the  teaching  of  Gregory  the  Great. 
■\^'e  find  abundant  traces  of  tliem  in  the  Saxon  Church 
in  Bede  and  other  writers.  Otto  Frisingensis  in  1146 
says,  "Some  affirm  that  there  is  in  the  unseen  state  a 
place  of  purgatory,  in  which  those  who  are  to  be  saved 
are  either  troubled  with  darkness  only,  or  are  refined 
by  the  fire  of  expiation."  It  was  first  put  forth  autho- 
ritatively as  a  doctrine  by  the  Council  of  Florence  (1438). 
The  Primitive  Church  prayed  for  the  samts  departed, 
"for  their  increase  of  rest  and  felicity;"  so  it  came  to 
be  held  that  prayer  could  benefit  those  who  were  in 
purgatory  to  procure  a  mitigation  or  shortening  of  their 
pains ;  then,  since  the  Eucharist  is  the  most  effectual 
way  of  pleading  with  God,  the  priests  were  asked  for 
their  Eucharistic  intercessions,  and  were  paid  for  special 
Eucharistic  services  with  this  view ;  and  so  came  the 
abuse  of  masses  for  the  dead  to  deliver  them  out  of 
purgatory. 

Saint-worsliip. — The  Primitive  Church  felt  strongly 
the  reality  of  the  life  after  death,  and  believed  that  saints 
departed  must  still  take  an  interest  in  those  whom  they 
have  loved  on  earth,  and  that  they  must  therefore  still 


136   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


pray  to  God  for  them.  This  led  in  time  to  asking  the 
saints  for  their  intercessions.  It  was  thought  that  such 
petitions  to  the  saints  were  most  Hkely  to  be  heard 
and  to  be  effectual  if  offered  at  the  burial-place  of 
the  saint  or  in  the  presence  of  any  relic  of  him ;  and 
so  grew  the  abuses  of  saint-worship,  relic-worship,  and 
pilgrimages. 

Indulgences. — This  originally  meant  the  relaxation  by 
the  bishop,  for  sufficient  reason,  of  the  penance  inflicted 
upon  any  one.  The  Mediaeval  theory  on  the  subject 
was,  that  after  the  remission  of  the  guilt  and  eternal 
penalty  of  sin  there  remains  a  certain  amount  of  punish- 
ment to  be  endured  either  in  this  world  or  the  next ;  that 
the  merits  of  the  saints,  over  and  above  the  holiness 
necessary  to  their  own  salvation,  constitute  a  treasury 
of  merit ;  that  the  Church  by  its  bishops  has  the  power 
to  apply  to  sinners  out  of  this  treasury  of  the  merits 
of  the  saints  to  atone  for  their  shortcomings  ;  and  this 
application  of  so  many  days'  or  years'  remission  of  pain 
is  called  an  indulgence.  The  sale  of  indulgences  on  a 
great  scale,  as  a  means  of  raising  funds  for  the  rebuild- 
ing of  St.  Peter's  at  Rome,  and  the  coarse  superstitions 
taught  by  Tetzel,  one  of  the  agents  for  their  sale,  in 
pressing  his  wares  upon  the  people  in  Gennany,  was 
one  of  the  immediate  causes  which  stirred  up  Luther  to 
the  opposition  to  Rome  which  led  to  the  great  reform 
movements  of  the  sixteenth  century. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


THE  REFORMATION 

TEMP.   HENRY  VIII. 

The  attempts  which  Europe  had  made  in  the  fifteenth 
century  to  obtain  a  reformation  of  the  Church  by  the 
agency  of  General  Councils  had  been  frustrated  by  the 
diplomacy  of  Rome ;  the  subsequent  endeavours  of  the 
sovereigns  to  reform  the  National  Churches  had  been 
only  partially  successful ;  the  Church  had  relapsed  into 
most  of  the  old  abuses,  and  the  prospect  appeared  hope- 
less. For  a  long  period  there  was  a  remarkable  absence 
of  original  thought ;  religion  was  stagnant ;  but  at  length 
Western  Europe  was  aroused  by  a  movement  which 
brought  the  Mediaeval  era  to  a  close  and  began  a  new 
order  of  things. 

The  Causes  of  the  Reformation. 

In  dealing  with  the  details  of  the  subject  it  will  be 
convenient  to  assume  the  reader's  knowledge  of  the 
general  history  of  the  period,  and  to  arrange  the  prin- 
cipal features  of  the  reformation  of  the  Church  in  the 
way  in  which  they  will  be  most  easily  apprehended  and 
remembered. 

The  New  Learning. — The  fall  of  Constantinople,  and 
of  the  Greek  Empire  with  it,  before  the  army  of  Mahomet 
II.  in  1453  A.D.,  had  for  one  result  the  scattering  of 
137 


138    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


learned  Greeks  as  refugees  over  Europe.  European 
scholars  eagerly  embraced  the  opportunity  to  make 
themselves  acquainted  with  the  Greek  language  and  with 
the  treasures  of  learning  enshrined  in  it.  Princes  and 
prelates  became  the  patrons  of  the  New  Learning ;  the 
educated  classes  followed  the  fashion,  and  a  powerful 
impulse  and  new  direction  were  given  to  the  intellect  of 
the  age.  A  reaction  set  in  against  the  worn-out  Medieval 
civilisation,  and  an  enthusiastic  admiration  of  the  classical 
literature,  philosophy,  and  art.  This  current  of  free  and 
vigorous  thought  was  the  great  factor  in  the  reform  of 
religion.  It  broke  the  bonds  of  old  authority  and 
brought  everything  to  the  bar  of  free  criticism.  It 
was  no  longer  a  question  merely  of  correcting  adminis- 
trative abuses,  but  of  a  searching  examination  into 
the  bases  of  all  existing  institutions  and  accepted 
beliefs. 

The  Art  of  Printing,  which  coincided  with  the  be- 
ginning of  the  New  Learning,  helped  greatly  to  spread  it 
among  the  people,  by  making  books  accessible  to  the 
large  numbers  whose  desire  for  knowledge  had  been 
stimulated  by  the  new  spirit  of  inquiry. 

Ecclesiasticalism  dominated  society;  the  new  Classi- 
calism  was  its  very  opposite.  It  was  natural  that  the  new 
spirit  should  attack  the  old;  it  was  almost  inevitable 
that  it  should  at  first  run  into  extremes ;  and  as  a  result, 
in  Italy,  and  in  the  court  of  Rome  itself,  the  literati 
were  more  of  pagan  philosophers  than  Christian  believers. 
The  classical  renaissance  was  long  in  arriving  in  England, 
and  never  went  to  the  same  extremes  here.  It  is  a 
testimony  to  the  truth  of  Christianity  that  in  this,  as  in 
other  great  periods  when  a  new  philosophy  or  science 
has  brought  men  to  inquire  in  no  friendly  spirit  into 
the  bases  of  revealed  religion,  the  result  has  been  that 


THE  REFORMATION 


religion  has  issued  from  the  searching  examination  purified 
from  the  accretions  of  ages,  and  more  firmly  established 
than  ever. 

The  Policy  of  Henry  VIII.— It  is  not  true  that  Henry 
VIII.  was  the  author  of  the  English  Reformation,  but  it 
is  true  that  if  he  had  opposed  it,  it  might  have  taken  a 
different  course.  It  is  very  probable  that  the  question 
of  his  divorce  from  Katherine  of  Arragon  had  great 
influence  in  determining  the  king  to  throw  himself  on 
the  side  of  the  reform.  For  political  reasons  both  Henry 
and  Francis  of  France  had  lately  held  out  to  the  Pope 
the  threat  of  withdrawing  their  obedience  from  Rome 
and  establishing  a  new  patriarchate  including  the  two 
kingdoms.  The  circumstances  of  the  divorce  case 
were  calculated  to  bring  home  to  Henry  the  intolerable 
evils  of  the  submission  to  the  corrupt  court  of  Rome 
as  a  final  court  of  appeal,  and  may  well  have  been  the 
"last  straw"  which  led  him  to  fulfil  the  threat,  so  often 
made  from  the  time  of  Henry  I.,  to  resume  the  ancient 
independence  of  the  English  Church. 

But  though  his  personal  grievance  may  have  led  Henry 
to  come  to  the  determination  to  break  with  Rome,  he 
went  into  the  matter  with  grave  political  motives.  The 
king  was  not  a  mere  sensual  tyrant ;  he  was  an  able 
statesman ;  and  in  this  matter  he  pursued  a  great  and 
far-reaching  policy.  The  Wars  of  the  Roses  had  broken 
the  power  of  the  feudal  nobles ;  the  only  power  which 
remained  capable  of  controlling  the  power  of  the  crown 
was  the  Church,  with  its  great  wealth  and  its  ancient 
privileges.  The  king  saw  the  opportunity  which  the 
times  offered  of  accomplishing  the  design  in  which 
Henry  II.  had  failed,  of  bringing  the  Church  under  the 
power  of  the  crown.  Henry  had  very  little  sympathy 
with  the  doctrinal  side  of  the  Reformation.    To  free  the 


140   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


crown  and  nation  from  all  foreign  authority,  and  then 
to  reduce  the  Church  under  the  rule  of  the  crown, 
this,  in  short,  was  Henry's  reform  policy;  and  it  may 
be  admitted  that  it  was  a  statesmanlike  policy,  and  one 
which,  if  carried  out  with  wisdom  and  moderation,  was 
for  the  welfare  of  the  Church  and  nation.  It  is  remark- 
able that  the  king  carried  out  every  step  of  this  revolu- 
tion with  careful  observance  of  constitutional  and  legal 
forms.  Wolsey  had  governed  without  Parliaments  ;  but 
a  Parliament  was  summoned  (and  packed)  for  the  pur- 
pose of  legalising  the  contemplated  changes,  which  sat 
from  1529  to  1536,  and  is  known  as  the  Reformation 
Parliament.  Convocation  was  summoned  at  the  same 
time,  and  took  its  constitutional  part  in  discussing  and 
consenting  to  every  step  which  was  afterwards  dealt  with 
by  Parliament  and  the  crown. 

The  King's  Divorce. — It  is  necessary  to  know  some- 
thing about  a  matter  which  exercised  so  large  a  practical 
influence  upon  the  history  of  the  reform  movement  as 
the  case  of  the  king's  divorce. 

The  politic  Henry  VII.,  in  obtaining  the  daughter 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  in  marriage  for  his  son  Arthur, 
cemented  the  alliance  with  Spain  and  obtained  a  large 
dower.  When  Arthur  died,  the  king  sought  to  retain 
these  advantages  by  the  simple  device  of  putting  Henry 
in  Arthur's  place.  There  was  some  wonder  at  the  fact 
of  the  marriage  of  the  young  prince  with  his  brother's 
widow,  and  Archbishop  Warham  made  some  remon- 
strance; but  the  king  willed  it,  and  the  Pope  gave  a 
dispensation  for  it.  They  were  married  and  lived 
together  for  fifteen  years,  and  the  wonder  had  long 
since  died  away.  But  at  the  end  of  those  fifteen 
years,  in  1526,  when  a  treaty  was  on  foot  for  the 
marriage  of  the  Princess    Mary  to   the   Duke  of 


THE  REFORMATION 


[41 


Orleans,  the  French  king's  ambassador  raised  the 
question  whether  Henry's  marriage  was  not  illegal, 
and  the  offspring  of  that  marriage  in  consequence 
illegitimate. 

Very  probably  the  king  was  startled  by  the  formal 
challenge  of  his  daughter's  legitimacy,  and  the  possibility 
which  it  suggested  of  a  disputed  succession  on  the  plea 
of  the  illegitimacy  of  his  children.  The  successive 
deaths  of  six  of  his  children,  leaving  him  without  a  male 
heir,  may  have  impressed  him.  Besides,  he  was  tired  of 
Katherine,  who  was  fading  into  middle  age  (forty-three), 
while  he  himself  was  in  the  prime  of  manhood  (thirty-five), 
and  he  had  fixed  his  fancy  upon  one  of  the  ladies  of  the 
queen's  court.  The  effect  of  these  mixed  motives  was 
the  determination  to  seek  for  a  divorce,  and  negotiations 
were  opened  with  Rome. 

The  Pope  was  in  a  great  difficulty.  To  grant  a  divorce 
on  the  ground  that  the  marriage  was  illegal  was  to 
declare  his  predecessor's  dispensation  erroneous  and  in-^ 
valid.  Moreover,  to  grant  the  divorce  was  to  make  an 
enemy  of  the  Emperor,  who  was  the  queen's  nephew  and 
who  warmly  espoused  her  cause.  The  Pope  therefore 
interposed  delays,  clearly  hoping  that  something  would 
happen  to  relieve  him  of  the  necessity  of  giving  any 
decision  at  all,  and  so  the  divorce  case  dragged  on  for 
six  weary  years.  On  May  31,  1529,  Cardinals  Wolsey 
and  Campeius  opened  their  legatine  court  in  London, 
and  the  scene  took  place  which  Cavendish  has  described 
and  Shakespeare  dramatised,  when  the  queen  made  her 
appeal  to  the  king's  heart  and  conscience,  denied  the 
validity  of  the  court,  and  appealed  to  Rome.  The 
Pope  thereupon  annulled  his  commission  to  the  cardinals 
and  recalled  the  case  to  Rome. 

Then  the  king  took  up  a  new  course,  which  it  is  said 


142    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


was  first  suggested  by  Cranmer;  this  was  to  obtain  the 
opinion  of  the  universities  and  canonists  of  Europe  on 
the  question  "  whether  marriage  with  a  brother's  widow 
is  forbidden  by  the  law  of  God,  and  whether  the  Pope 
has  authority  to  give  a  dispensation  for  such  a  marriage  ;" 
and  if  their  opinion  was  in  the  affirmative  on  the  first 
clause  and  in  the  negative  on  the  second,  to  treat  the 
marriage  as  null  and  void  from  tlie  beginning,  and 
himself  therefore  an  unmarried  man,  at  liberty  to  marry 
whom  and  when  he  pleased. 

Warham  died  early  in  1533,  and  Cranmer  was  conse- 
crated March  30,  1533.  The  Act  for  the  restraint  of 
appeals  to  Rome  had  been  passed  which  made  the 
archbishop's  court  the  final  court  of  appeal,  and  the  new 
archbishop  brought  the  cause  to  an  end.  He  opened 
his  court  at  Dunstable  on  the  loth  of  May;  the  queen 
did  not  appear  and  was  pronounced  contumacious ; 
the  court  pronounced  that  the  marriage  of  Henry  and 
Katherine  had  been  null  and  void  from  the  beginning. 
On  March  24,  1534,  the  Pope,  thus  driven  to  extremities, 
gave  sentence  on  the  contrary  that  the  marriage  was 
valid. 

Anne  Boleyn  had  for  some  time  past  lived  in  the 
king's  palace  and  gone  about  with  him,  and  it  is  charitable 
to  suppose  that  they  were  privately  married.  On  the 
declaration  of  the  archbishop's  sentence  it  was  proclaimed 
that  they  had  been  married  for  some  time,  and  .Anne  was 
crowned  in  May. 

The  Withdrawal  of  Obedience  from  Rome. 

The  Church  of  England  did  not  look  upon  its  entry, 
after  the  Conquest,  into  strictly  conditioned  relations 
with  Rome  as  the  acknowledgment  of  a  right  jure  divino 


THE  REFORMATION 


143 


of  the  Papal  See  to  supremacy.  The  idea  of  reces- 
sion from  the  arrangement  was  habitually  in  the  mind 
of  the  Church,  and  was  threatened  from  time  to  time, 
from  the  reign  of  Henry  I.,  in  the  generation  after  it 
had  been  entered  into,  down  to  the  reign  of  Henry 
VHI.  (see  pp.  74,  115). 

The  Pope  had  received  various  warnings.  The  king's 
ambassadors  more  than  once  pointed  out  that  their 
failure  to  move  the  Pope  might  lead  the  king  to  dis- 
claim his  authority ;  a  petition  to  the  Pope  was  signed 
by  a  number  of  members  of  the  Houses  of  Lords  and 
Commons  (viz.,  2  archbishops,  4  bishops,  2  dukes,  2 
marquises,  13  earls,  and  24  barons,  and  22  abbots,  11 
commoners  and  divines),  threatening  that  if  he  further 
delayed  to  give  sentence  in  the  divorce  case,  they  would 
take  it  to  mean  that  they  were  left  to  take  care  of 
themselves  and  would  seek  their  remedy  elsewhere 
(Collier,  ix.  86). 

So  early  as  1531,  the  bishops  and  clergy  in  Convoca- 
tion took  the  first  formal  step  in  the  direction  of 
resuming  the  independence  of  the  English  Church. 
Convocation  petitioned  the  king  complaining  of  the  pay- 
ment of  annates  to  Rome,  showing  cause  against  their 
payment,  and  asking  the  king  to  procure  an  Act  of 
Parliament  putting  an  end  to  the  exaction ;  and  sug- 
gested that  if  the  Pope  should  take  any  proceedings  to 
enforce  the  payment,  or  withhold  the  usual  Papal  con- 
firmation of  episcopal  appointinents,  the  king  and  Parlia- 
ment should  concur  in  withdrawing  the  obedience  of 
England  from  the  See  of  Rome.  In  consequence  of 
this  petition  an  Act  against  the  payment  of  annates 
(23  Henry  VHI.  c.  20)  was  passed,  enacting  that  all 
such  payments  should  cease,  but  that  a  payment  of 
five  per  cent,  on  one  year's  value  should  be  offered  as 


144    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


fees  for  the  bulls  usual  at  the  consecration  of  a  bishop, 
and  that  if  the  Pope  did  not  accept  the  arrangement, 
bishops  should  be  made  and  consecrated  as  heretofore 
in  ancient  time  ^  by  sundry  the  king's  most  noble  pro- 
genitors. A  final  clause  put  this  weapon  into  the  king's 
hand  to  strengthen  his  negotiation  with  the  Pope,  with 
power  to  promulgate  it  if  the  negotiation  should  fail. 

When  the  negotiation  failed  the  Act  was  proclaimed 
in  1553.  It  was  strengthened  by  an  additional  Act 
(25  Henry  VIII.  c.  20)  reciting  and  confirming  the 
former  Act,  and  proceeding  to  define  the  way  in  which 
bishops  were  to  be  made  and  consecrated  in  future.  It 
was  substantially  a  continuance  of  the  former  customs 
and  formalities  :  it  retained  the  license  to  the  chapter  to 
elect,  accompanied  by  a  letter-missive  containing  the 
name  of  the  person  whom  they  should  elect.  It  enacted 
that  if  the  chapter  should  delay  to  elect  above  twelve 
days,  the  king  may  nominate  and  the  archbishop  and 
bishops  shall  proceed  to  consecrate ;  if  the  chapter  re- 
fuse to  elect  or  the  bishops  to  consecrate,  they  incur  the 
pains  and  penalties  of  the  statute  of  premunire.  This 
is  the  statute  under  which  bishops  are  still  appointed. 

By  the  original  decree  of  William  I.  no  appeal  was 
to  be  made  to  Rome,  and  no  Papal  document  of  any  kind 
was  to  be  received  without  the  royal  assent,  and  the 
Act  of  Premunire  had  strengthened  that  original  decree ; 
so  that  it  was  within  the  constitutional  right  of  the  crown 
to  declare  that  there  should  be  no  more  such  appeals. 
This  was  done  by  an  Act  for  restraining  appeals 
(24  Henry  VIII.  c.   12).    The   ancient  constitution 

'  During  the  Papal  schism  England  did  not  recognise  either  of 
the  rival  Popes,  and  Henry  V.  ordered  that  bishops  elect  should 
be  confirmed  by  their  metropolitans  (Collier,  Eccl.  Hist.,  ii. 
viii.). 


THE  REFORMATION 


145 


of  England  in  Church  and  State,  and  the  intention 
to  continue  it  through  the  reforms  of  Henry  VIII., 
are  well  set  forth  in  the  preamble  to  this  Act.  It 
begins  by  stating,  "  Whereas  by  divers  sundry  old 
authentic  histories  and  chronicles  it  is  manifestly  de- 
clared and  expressed  that  this  realm  of  England  is 
an  empire,  and  so  hath  been  accepted  in  the  world, 
governed  by  one  supreme  head  and  king,  having  the 
dignity  and  royal  estate  of  the  imperial  crown  of  the 
same;  unto  whom  as  a  body  politic,  composed  of  all 
sorts  and  degrees  of  people,  divided  in  terms  and  by 
names  of  Spirituality  and  TemporaUty,  been  bounden 
and  owen  to  bear,  next  to  God,  a  natural  and  humble 
obedience  .  .  .  the  body  spiritual  whereof  having  power 
when  any  cause  of  the  law  divine  happened  to  come 
in  question,  or  of  spiritual  learning,  then  it  was  declared, 
interpreted,  and  showed  by  that  part  of  the  body  politic 
called  the  Spirituality,  now  being  usually  called  the 
English  Church,  which  always  hath  been  reputed  and 
also  found  of  that  sort  that,  both  for  knowledge  and 
integrity  and  sufficiency  of  number,  it  hath  been  always 
thought,  and  is  also  at  this  hour  sufficient  and  meet 
of  itself,  without  the  intermeddling  of  any  exterior 
person  or  persons,  to  declare  and  determine  all  such 
doubts  and  to  administer  all  such  offices  and  duties  as 
to  their  rooms  spiritual  doth  appertain  ;  for  the  due 
administration  whereof  and  to  keep  them  from  corrup- 
tion and  sinister  affection,  the  king's  most  noble  pro- 
genitors and  the  antecessors  of  the  nobles  of  this  realm 
have  sufficiently  endowed  the  said  Church  both  with 
honour  and  possessions.  .  .  .  The  laws  temporal  for 
trials  of  property,  of  lands  and  goods,  and  for  the  conser- 
vation of  the  people  of  the  realm  in  unity  and  peace, 
without  rapine  or  spoil,  was  and  yet  is  administered, 
s.  r.  K 


146    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


adjudged,  and  executed  by  sundry  judges  and  ministers 
of  the  other  part  of  the  said  body  politic  called  the 
Temporality;  and  both  these  authorities  and  jurisdic- 
tions do  conjoin  together  in  the  due  administration  of 
justice,  the  one  to  help  the  other." 

The  continuity  of  the  Church  is  set  forth  in  a  further 
section  of  the  same  Act,  which  declares  that  "all  the 
spiritual  prelates,  pastors,  ministers,  and  curates  within 
the  realm  and  the  dominions  of  the  same  shall  and 
may  use,  minister,  execute,  and  do,  or  cause  to  be  used, 
ministered,  executed,  and  done,  all  sacraments,  sacra- 
mentals,  divine  services,  and  all  other  things  within  the 
said  realm  and  dominions,  unto  all  the  subjects  of  the 
same  as  Christian  men  owen  to  do."  In  the  Act  of 
Submission  (25  Henry  VIII.  c.  19)  it  was  added,  that 
an  appeal  should  lie  from  the  archbishop  to  the  Court  of 
Chancery,  which  was  to  issue  a  commission  under  the 
great  seal  for  delegates  to  be  named  by  the  crown  to 
re-hear  the  cause. 

Another  Act  concerning  Peter's  Pence  and  Dispensa- 
tions (25  Henry  VIII.  c.  21),  in  1533-34,  sweeps  away  all 
remaining  payments  of  any  kind  to  the  See  of  Rome, 
and  authorises  the  Archbishop  01  Canterbury  to  grant 
all  such  dispensations,  faculties,  &c.,  not  being  contrary 
to  the  law  of  God,  as  were  formerly  granted  by  the 
Bishop  of  Rome. 

The  Relations  of  Church  and  State. 

In  the  prosecution  of  his  designs  against  the  ancient 
constitutional  liberties  of  the  Church,  Henry  took  a  very 
strange  course.  In  1523  the  king  had  allowed  Wolsey 
to  obtain  a  Papal  bull  empowering  him  to  introduce 
some  reforms  in  the  Church.    Wolsey  had  summoned 


THE  REFORMATION 


147 


a  national  synod  with  that  view;  but  when  the  clergy 
came  togellier,  they  were  not  minded  to  put  the  matter 
into  the  cardinal's  hands,  and  raised  such  obstacles  that 
the  design  failed.  It  would  seem  that  Wolsey  had 
acted  on  the  king's  verbal  permission,  and  had  not 
taken  the  precaution  to  obtain  a  formal  license  under  his 
hand  and  seal,  and  was  therefore  technically  guilty  of  a 
breach  of  the  Act  of  Premunire.  The  king  now  started 
the  monstrous  fiction  that  the  clergy,  in  obeying  Wolsey's 
summons  to  the  synod  of  1523,  had  acted  under  the 
Papal  bull,  and  so  involved  themselves  also  in  the 
penalties  of  the  premunire ;  and  lastly,  the  whole  body 
of  the  laity  were  included  in  the  charge  as  "main- 
tainers,  abettors,  and  fautors."  The  king's  attorney  for- 
mally commenced  a  suit  in  the  King's  Bench  against  the 
clergy  and  laity  of  England  on  this  charge.  The  laity 
were  graciously  pardoned  on  a  petition  from  the  House 
of  Commons ;  but  the  clergy  were  given  to  understand 
that  the  sentence  of  the  court  would  leave  them  at  the 
king's  mercy,  and  that  in  order  to  ransom  themselves 
they  must  consent  to  pay  a  fine  to  the  king  of  ;^ioo,ooo 
from  the  clergy  of  Canterbury  and  0,000  from 
those  of  York,  equal  to  almost  p^i, 500,000  of  modern 
money,  and  to  acknowledge  the  royal  supremacy.  The 
money  was  voted  by  the  Convocations ;  the  recognition 
of  the  supremacy  was  a  more  difficult  matter.  The 
general  acknowledgment  was  introduced  into  the  pre- 
amble of  the  Act  of  Convocation  voting  the  fine.  It 
was  at  first  proposed  by  the  king's  advisers  to  insert 
there  the  words,  "  of  the  English  Church  and  clergy,  of 
which  the  king  alone  is  protector  and  supreme  head." 
The  blasphemous  interpretation  to  which  this  phrase 
was  liable  being  pointed  out  to  the  king,  he  agreed 
to  the  insertion  of  the  words  "after  God" — Cujus pro- 


148    HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAXD 


tector  et  supremum  caput  post  Detan  is  solus  est.  But 
it  was  held  by  the  clergy  that  the  phrase  was  still 
capable  of  being  interpreted  to  contain  a  recognition 
of  spiritual  authority  in  the  crown,  and  they  refused  to 
agree  to  it.  The  king  sent  for  the  bishops  and  other 
leading  clergymen,  and  pledged  himself  not  to  exercise 
any  other  powers  or  jurisdiction  than  had  been  exercised 
by  preceding  sovereigns;  but  the  clergy  still  objected. 
They  suggested  the  words,  "of  the  Enghsh  Church  and 
clergy,  whereof  we  recognise  his  Majesty  as  the  sole 
protector,  the  only  supreme  governor,  and  even,  so 
far  as  the  law  of  Christ  will  allow,  the  supreme  head," — 
quantum  per  Chfisti  legem  licet.  The  king  raged  and 
blustered  according  to  his  wont,  "  he  would  have  no 
quanturns  and  tantums  ; "  but  the  clergy  refused  to  give 
way,  and  the  king  had  to  accept  the  clause.  In  the 
Convocation  of  York,  Tunstal,  Bishop  of  Durham,  pre- 
siding in  the  vacancy  of  the  See  of  York,  protested  on 
the  ground  that  the  clause  was  still  liable  to  miscon- 
struction. "That  we  may  not  give  scandal  to  weaker 
brethren,  I  conceive  that  this  acknowledgment  of  the 
supreme  headship  should  be  so  carefully  expressed  as  to 
point  wholly  upon  civil  and  secular  jurisdiction.  And 
with  this  explanation  the  English  clergy,  and  particularly 
myself,  are  willing  to  go  the  utmost  length  in  the  recog- 
nition. But  since  the  clause  is  not  at  present  thus 
guarded  and  explained,  I  must  declare  my  dissent,  and 
desire  my  protestation  may  be  entered  upon  the  journal 
of  Convocation."  The  clergy  generally,  however,  seem  to 
have  thought  that  the  meaning  of  the  clause  was  suf- 
ficiently defined  by  what  had  been  said  on  both  sides 
in  the  course  of  its  discussion. 

In  1534  the  Act  of  Supremacy  (26  Henry  VIII.  c.  i) 
gave  a  parliamentary  sanction  to  the  royal  supremacy  as 


THE  REFORMATION 


149 


then  acknowledged  by  the  clergy  in  Convocation  :  "  Be  it 
enacted  that  the  king,  his  heirs  and  successors,  shall  be 
taken,  accepted,  and  reputed  as  the  only  supreme  head  on 
earth  of  the  Church  of  England,  called  Anglicana  Ecclesia^^ 
and  "shall  have  full  power  and  authority  to  visit,  repress, 
redress,  reform,  order,  correct,  restrain  and  amend,"  "all 
errors,  heresies,  abuses,  contempts,  and  enormities-" 

In  the  following  year,  this  surrender  by  the  Church  of 
the  liberties  and  immunities  it  had  enjoyed  since  the 
Conquest  was  practically  carried  out.  The  House  of 
Commons,  probably  at  the  instigation  of  the  king,  pre- 
sented a  petition  to  the  crown  against  the  abuses  of  the 
ecclesiastical  courts  and  other  abuses,  the  principal  being 
that  the  Convocation  made  canons  without  the  consent 
of  the  king  and  laity,  and  that  church  discipline  was 
harshly  enforced.  Convocation  replied  to  the  petition, 
but  the  reply  was  not  considered  satisfactory;  and  the 
king  dictated  to  the  clergy  the  terms  on  which  in  future 
the  canons  of  the  Church  should  be  recognised  by  the  law 
and  enforced  by  the  aid  of  the  civil  authority.  These 
were  accepted  by  Convocation  and  embodied  in  an  Act  of 
Parliament  for  the  submission  of  the  clergy  (25  Henry 
Vin.  c.  19):  (i)  That  Convocation  should  assemble 
only  with  the  royal  permission ;  (2)  that  it  should  make 
no  canons  without  the  royal  license ;  (3)  that  when  made, 
they  should  have  no  force  till  they  had  received  the 
royal  sanction ;  (4)  that  even  then  they  should  have  no 
force  if  found  to  be  opposed  to  the  laws  of  the  realm  or 
the  rights  of  the  crown  ;  (5)  that  a  reform  of  the  canon 
law  should  be  undertaken  by  a  commission  of  bishops 
and  others  ;  (6)  that  the  ancient  laws  of  the  Church,  not 
inconsistent  with  the  laws  of  the  realm  and  the  king's 
prerogative,  should  continue  in  force  until  further  legis- 
lation abolished  them. 


I50   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


The  power  to  appoint  this  commission  was  renewed 
in  1535,  and  again  in  1544,  but  was  not  acted  upon.  In 
the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  (in  1551)  commissioners  were 
appointed,  and  drew  up  the  Reformalio  Legum  Ecclesi- 
asiicartim,  but  this  was  not  legalised.  The  question  was 
revived  after  the  Restoration,  but  there  was  an  indis- 
position to  give  a  new  edge  to  the  sword  of  ecclesiastical 
discipline,  and  the  old  weapons,  formidable  looking  but 
clumsy  and  obsolete,  were  allowed  to  remain.  Thus 
the  "further  legislation"  never  took  place,  and  con- 
sequently the  ancient  canon  law  of  the  Church  of 
England  still  holds  good  where  it  is  not  contrary  to 
the  statute  law  and  does  not  interfere  with  the  rights 
of  the  crown. 

The  year  1534  may  be  conveniently  taken  as  the 
critical  year  of  the  Reformation.  In  that  year  the 
Convocations  formally  declared  that  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
hath  no  greater  jurisdiction  conferred  on  him  by  God 
in  this  kingdom  of  England  than  any  other  bishop,  and 
this  was  signed  by  the  clergy,  and  by  the  monks  generally. 
In  that  year  the  Annates  Act  was  published,  and  the  Act 
for  restraining  appeals  was  passed,  which  legally  threw 
off  the  authority  of  Rome ;  and  in  that  year  the  Act  for 
the  submission  of  the  clergy  was  passed,  which  abolished 
the  ancient  constitutional  privileges  of  the  Church.  In 
the  same  year  the  Act  of  Succession  was  passed,  which 
declared  Anne's  marriage  lawful  and  Elizabeth  heir  to 
the  throne,  and  required  all  subjects  to  take  an  oath 
of  approval  of  this  declaration.  Fisher,  Bishop  of 
Rochester,  and  Sir  Thomas  More,  who  had  resigned 
his  chancellorship  two  years  before,  and  the  monks  of 
the  London  Charterhouse,  were  imprisoned  for  refusing 
the  oath. 

The  Treason  Act  of  the  same  year  (26  Henry  VIII. 


THE  REFORMATION  151 

c.  13)  made  it  high  treason  to  practise  or  wish  harm  to 
the  king,  queen,  or  heir-apparent,  to  use  words  denying 
their  titles,  or  to  call  the  king  a  heretic,  schismatic, 
tyrant,  infidel,  or  usurper  of  the  crown.  Since  the  Act 
was  repealed  in  the  next  reign,  we  are  at  liberty  to 
express  an  opinion  as  to  its  tyrannical  character.  In 
this  same  year  the  venerable  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
and  the  eminent  ex-Chancellor  More  were  dealt  with  by 
attainder,  and  suffered  death  upon  the  scaffold. 

The  Spoliation  of  the  Church. 

In  pursuance  of  the  king's  design  to  lessen  the  power 
of  the  Church,  he  procured  an  Act  of  Parliament  (27 
Henry  VIII.  c.  28)  in  1535-36  for  the  suppression  of 
the  smaller  religious  houses,  viz.,  those  whose  income 
was  less  than  ;^2oo  a  year.  He  had  previously  issued  a 
commission  to  inquire  into  their  condition.  The  busi- 
ness of  the  commissioners  was  to  make  out  a  case  against 
the  smaller  houses,  and  they  did  it ;  reporting  many 
abuses,  whicli  possibly  existed,  and  trying  to  deprive 
them  of  popular  sympathy  by  bringing  monstrous 
charges,  which  nobody  now  believes.  The  measure 
was  unpopular,  and  the  Commons  were  unwilling  to  pass 
the  bill.  But  Sir  H.  Spelman  relates  that  "when  the 
bill  had  stuck  long  in  the  Lower  House,  and  could  get 
no  passage,  the  king  commanded  the  Commons  to  attend 
him  in  his  galler_\',  where  he  let  them  wait  till  late  in 
the  afternoon,  and  then  coming  out  of  his  chamber, 
walking  a  turn  or  two  amongst  them,  and  looking  angrily 
at  them,  first  on  one  side  and  then  on  the  other,  at  last, 
'  I  hear,'  saith  he,  '  that  my  bill  will  not  pass ;  but  I 
will  have  it  pass,  or  I  will  have  some  of  your  heads,' 
and  without  other  rhetoric  or  persuasion  returned  to  his 


152    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


chamber.  Enough  was  said ;  the  bill  was  passed,  and 
all  was  given  to  him  as  he  desired." 

The  king's  object  was  twofold ;  it  was  not  merely  to 
seize  the  property  of  these  foundations ;  it  was  also  to 
get  rid  of  the  Friars.  Their  organisation  placed  them 
entirely  under  the  orders  of  the  Roman  court,  and  they 
were  necessarily  determined  advocates  of  the  Papal 
claims ;  and,  spread  over  the  country  as  they  were,  and 
having  the  ear  of  the  common  people,  ihey  were  for- 
midable opponents  of  the  king's  measures.  These 
Mendicant  Orders,  having  no  income  and  no  property 
beyond  their  churches  and  convents,  came  under  the 
Act.  The  Friars  were  summarily  suppressed,  unfrocked, 
and  turned  out  of  doors.  Some  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  small  monasteries  sought  refuge  in  the  larger  houses 
of  the  same  order. 

The  Surrender  of  the  Great  Houses. — The  com- 
missioners who  reported  against  the  small  houses  bore 
witness  that  "  in  the  great  solemn  monasteries  of  this 
realm  (thanks  be  to  God)  religion  is  right  well  kept 
and  observed."    But  this  did  not  save  them. 

The  monasteries,  largely  through  their  own  cultivation 
and  good  management  of  the  waste  lands  originally 
given  to  them,  had  become  wealthy,  and  their  noble 
churches  and  cloister  buildings,  distributed  three  or 
four  or  half-a-dozen  in  each  county,  were  an  ornament 
to  the  land.  It  may  be  admitted  that  they  had  ceaied 
to  be  of  so  much  direct  use  to  the  country  as  they  were 
in  earlier  times,  and  some  reform  of  them  would  have 
been  a  wise  measure  ;  they  afforded  a  source  from  which 
new  bishoprics  and  colleges  might  have  been  founded, 
and  the  number  of  parochial  clergy  increased  and  their 
stipends  improved ;  while  some  of  them  might  very  well 
have  been  left,  under  revised  conditions,  to  their  ancient 


THE  REFORMATION 


153 


uses  as  places  of  learning  and  prayer.  It  was  under 
some  such  pretext  that  the  king  sought  to  reconcile  the 
people  to  the  measures  which  he  proceeded  to  take 
against  them. 

The  mode  of  procedure  is  characteristic  of  the  mind 
which  attacked  the  secular  clergy  under  the  Statute 
of  Premunire.  No  bill  was  asked  from  Parliament, 
following  the  precedent  of  the  smaller  houses,  to  put 
the  great  houses  into  the  king's  hand.  The  abbots 
were  numerous  in  Parliament,  many  of  the  monks  were 
the  younger  sons  of  noble  and  powerful  families,  and 
the  monasteries  were  venerable  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people;  it  would  probably  have  been  difficult,  even 
by  threats,  to  get  such  a  bill  through  the  two  Houses. 
So  the  attack  was  made  in  a  different  way.  First, 
commissioners  were  sent  round  to  make  out  a  case 
against  the  houses.  Then  the  legal  fiction  was  intro- 
duced that  these  ancient  foundations  were  the  property 
in  fee  of  the  abbot  and  monks  who  happened  to  be 
the  present  life-tenants.  Then,  instead  of  attacking 
them  in  a  body,  they  were  diplomatically  dealt  with 
one  by  one.  The  communities  were  simply  invited 
to  surrender  their  houses  to  the  king.  Some  were 
bribed  by  the  promise  of  other  preferment,  others  were 
threatened  with  criminal  proceedings  on  one  charge 
or  another.  Sometimes  an  abbot,  who  could  not  in 
conscience  surrender  his  house,  was  induced  to  resign 
his  office,  and  another  man  was  made  abbot  for  the 
moment,  to  complete  the  business.  In  a  few  cases  an 
abbot  who  could  neither  be  bribed  nor  frightened  was 
got  rid  of  by  trumping  up  some  charge  against  him  and 
hanging  him.  The  venerable  Abbot  of  Glastonbury 
and  the  Abbots  of  Reading  and  Colchester  were  thus 
dealt  with.    Thus  the  whole  body  of  monks  was  sup- 


154    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


pressed,  as  the  Friars  had  been  four  years  before.  The 
king,  still  scrupulously  observant  of  legal  forms,  pro- 
ceeded to  get  a  parliamentary  title  to  the  property  which 
he  had  thus  seized.  To  pave  the  way  for  it,  he  first  got 
an  Act  (31  Henry  VIII.  c.  9)  empowering  the  king  to 
create  new  bishoprics — he  talked  of  creating  eighteen — 
then  he  brought  forward  another  Act  (31  Henry  VIII. 
c.  13)  whose  preamble  states  that  "sundry  abbots, 
priors,  abbesses,  prioresses,  and  other  ecclesiastical 
governors  and  governesses  of  divers  monasteries  ...  of 
their  own  free  and  voluntary  minds  and  good  wills  and 
assents,  without  constraint,  co-action,  or  compulsion  of 
any  manner  of  person  or  persons,  have  resigned  and 
granted  to  the  king  all  their  houses,  estates,  and  privi- 
leges, and  therefore  it  is  enacted  that  the  king  shall 
have,  hold,  possess,  and  enjoy  them  to  himself  and  his 
successors  for  ever."  The  ruin  of  the  monasteries  and 
the  disturbance  of  the  devotional  feelings  of  the  people 
stirred  up  a  strong  feeling  against  the  government  which 
went  the  length  of  armed  rebellion.  A  rising  in  Lin- 
colnshire in  the  autumn  of  1536,  easily  put  down, 
broke  out  again  in  Yorkshire  under  the  picturesque 
name  of  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace.  It  was  so  formid- 
able that  the  king  temporised,  issued  a  general  pardon, 
and  promised  redress  of  grievances.  Early  in  the  follow- 
ing year,  however,  he  took  the  occasion  of  some  new 
disturbances  to  strike  terror  into  the  opponents  of  his 
measures  by  wholesale  executions  of  all  ranks  and  classes 
of  the  disaffected. 

Out  of  the  monastic  property  the  king  founded  five 
new  bishoprics,  viz.,  Bristol,  Chester,  Gloucester,  Ox- 
ford, and  Peterborough.  Some  of  the  houses  were 
given  by  the  king  to  the  representatives  of  their  original 
founders ;  with  others  he  endowed  a  new  race  of  nobles 


THE  REFORMATION 


155 


and  landed  gentry ;  a  considerable  number  of  people, 
by  gift  or  purchase  of  manors  and  lands,  became 
sharers  in  the  spoil.  Finally,  in  1545-46  an  Act  of 
Parliament  (37  Henry  VIII.  c.  4)  placed  the  endow- 
ments of  the  Universities,  of  all  colleges  of  priests, 
and  of  all  chantries  and  guilds,  at  the  mercy  of  the 
king,  and  commissioners  were  appointed  to  visit  them ; 
but  the  king's  death,  January  28,  1547  (in  the  56th  year 
of  his  age  and  the  38th  of  his  reign),  arrested  their 
action. 

The  Doctrinal  Reform. 

The  idea  of  the  principal  actors  in  the  reforming 
movement  of  the  first  period,  i.e.,  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII.,  was  to  bring  the  Church  back  to  the  doctrine, 
organisation,  discipline,  and  customs  of  the  early 
ages  of  the  Church.  The  formal  withdrawal  from  the 
obedience  to  Rome,  the  assertion  of  the  supremacy  of 
the  crown  over  all  its  subjects,  were  defended  on  the 
ground  that  they  were  a  return  to  the  model  of  earlier 
times ;  and  similarly  the  doctrinal  reforms  were  under- 
taken with  the  clear  avowal  that  ihey  were  the  sweeping 
away  of  mediaeval  accretions  and  a  return  to  the  primitive 
standards  of  the  faith,  viz.,  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  three 
Creeds,  the  General  Councils,  and  the  ancient  Fathers. 

The  work  of  doctrinal  reformation  was  effected  by 
the  revision  of  the  service  books,  and  the  formulation 
of  articles  of  religion  binding  upon  the  clergy,  and  by 
the  publication  of  translations  of  the  Bible,  of  authorita- 
tive expositions  of  doctrine  from  time  to  time,  and  the 
issue  of  popular  devotional  books.  The  getting  rid  of 
superstitious  practices  was  effected  largely  by  the  bishops 
in  the  visitation  of  their  dioceses.  It  will  be  sufficient 
to  note  the  principal  steps. 


156    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

Tyndale's  translation  of  the  New  Testament  (1525)  was 
not  permitted  by  the  authorities  to  be  introduced  into 
England,  but  it  was  brought  in  secretly  and  circulated 
among  the  more  zealous  Reformers.  It  was  an  admirable 
translation,  and  the  basis  of  the  present  authorised 
version. 

Coverdale's  translation  of  the  Bible  was  published  in 
1535,  and  is  probably  that  which  was  ordered  in  1536 
to  be  set  up  in  the  churches,  Matthews'  Bible  was 
published  in  1537  ;  it  was  mainly  Tyndale's  translation 
(1525)  with  prefiices  and  notes.  Cranmer's  great  Bible 
was  published  in  1539. 

The  Breviary  was  expurgated  from  all  mention  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  and  of  saints  not  mentioned  in  the 
Bible  as  early  as  15 16,  in  the  time  of  Wolsey  and 
Warham,  and  in  1533  the  Missal  was  reformed  on  the 
same  principles.  In  1542  Convocation  appointed  a 
committee  to  consider  a  more  thorough  revision  of  the 
service  books.  In  the  following  year  it  published  a 
translation  and  revision  of  the  Litany,  a  service  which, 
by  its  simplicity  and  directness,  and  its  picturesque 
accessories  of  procession  and  music,  was  very  popular. 
In  the  same  year  was  published  a  revised  edition  of  the 
popular  book  of  devotion,  the  English  Prymsr,  which 
contained  translations  of  matins,  evensong,  and  compline, 
the  Creed  and  Ten  Commandments,  certain  psalms  and 
prayers  ior  various  occasions,  &c. 

In  1547  Convocation  approved,  and  an  Act  ol  Par- 
liament legalised,  the  use  of  a  Communion  Service,  which 
Cranmer  had  drawn  up  in  obedience  to  the  king's  in- 
junction to  "pen  a  form  for  the  alteration  of  the  mass 
into  a  Communion."  It  took  the  old  service  (expurgated 
in  1542)  and  added  the  exhortation  beginning  "Dearly 
beloved  in  the  Lord,"  the  invitation,  "  Ye  that  do  truly," 


THE  REFORMATION 


157 


&c.,  the  confession,  absolution,  comfortable  words,  and 
prayer  of  humble  access,  "We  do  not  presume,"  &c.,  as 
we  still  have  them,  and  the  first  half  of  the  words  of 
administration,  "The  body  of  our  Lord,"  &c.,  "The 
blood  of  our  Lord,"  &c.,  and  the  first  half  of  the  con- 
cluding benediction,  "The  peace  of  God,"  &c. 

In  1536  Convocation  agreed  upon  Ten  Articles  of 
Religioa  They  set  forth  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the 
three  Creeds  as  the  canons  of  the  faith,  and  declare  all 
contrary  opinions,  as  condemned  by  the  first  four  holy 
Councils,  to  be  condemned.  Five  of  these  related  to 
matters  of  the  faith,  baptism,  penance,  the  Eucharist, 
and  justification ;  the  other  five  to  laudable  ceremonies 
used  in  the  church,  viz.,  images,  the  honour  to  be 
given  to  saints,  prayers  to  saints,  rites  and  ceremonies, 
purgatory.  This  was  followed  up  by  a  book  drawn  up 
by  a  commission  of  bishops  and  other  divines,  entitled 
The  Institution  (i.e.,  instruction)  of  a  Christian  Man,  a 
very  able  and  even  eloquent  exposition  of  the  Creed, 
Commandments,  and  Sacraments,  and  an  explanation  of 
the  usual  religious  ceremonies.  The  work  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  great  popular  exposition  of  the  doctrines 
of  this  first  period  of  the  Reformation. 

Here  the  progress  of  doctrinal  reform  halted,  and  for 
a  moment  there  was  a  reaction.  Foreign  refugees. 
Anabaptists  and  others,  had  introduced  wild  opinions, 
political  and  religious,  which  were  taken  up  by  the  more 
fanatical  of  the  people ;  the  danger  which  must  always 
exist  when  ignorant  men  are  encouraged  to  form  and 
act  upon  their  own  crude  notions  of  politics  and  religion 
became  so  evident  that  the  authorities  took  alarm,  and 
made  a  stand  against  further  innovations.  In  1539 
Six  Articles  of  Religion  were  issued,  in  which  (i)  tran- 
substantiation  was  aftirmed ;  (2)  communion  in  both 


138    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


kinds  declared  nut  necessary ;  (3)  priests  not  to  marry ; 
(4)  vows  of  celibacy  to  be  kept ;  (5)  private  masses 
approved ;  (6)  auricular  confession  necessary.  The  Act 
of  Parliament  which  legalised  these  articles  contained 
a  penal  clause  enacting  that  offenders  against  the 
first  clause  should  be  adjudged  to  be  heretics  and 
should  be  burned,  and  offenders  against  the  other 
clauses  should  be  subject  to  the  penalties  of  felony. 
Historians  assure  us  that  few  if  any  suffered  under  this 
dreadful  Act. 

The  Necessary  Doctrine  and  Erudition  of  a  Christian 
Man,  published  in  1543,  was  a  revised  edition  of  the 
"  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man,"  modified  to  harmonise 
with  the  Six  Articles.  The  two  books  were  popularly 
distinguished,  and  to  a  certain  extent  rightly  charac- 
terised, by  the  names  of  the  Bishops'  Book  and  the 
King's  Book. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


THE  REFORMATION— ITS  OSCILLATIONS 

TEMP.   EDWARD  VI.   AND  MARY 

Edward  VI.,  1547  a.d. — The  Influence  of  Foreign 
Reformers. — Several  things  which  were  pubHshed  at  the 
beginning  of  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  were  really  the 
work  of  the  previous  reign.  The  English  form  of  Com- 
munion was  not  ready  for  publication  till  now ;  what  is 
called  the  First  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI.,  confirmed 
by  Convocation  and  legalised  by  Parliament  (2  and  3 
Edward  VI.  c.  i)  in  1549,  was  really  the  work  of  the 
commission  appointed  in  1542;  the  same  may  be  said 
of  the  Reformed  Ordinal  authorised  in  1550,  and  of  the 
First  Book  of  Homilies,  1547. 

The  general  spirit  of  the  religious  action  of  this 
reign  was  very  different  from  that  which  had  inspired 
the  reforms  of  the  previous  period.  A  strong  spirit 
of  Erastianism  was  combined  with  a  strong  leaning 
towards  the  novel  doctrines  of  the  Swiss  Reformers. 

This  Erastianism  showed  itself  in  the  Act  (i  Edward 
VI.  c.  12)  which  made  it  treason  to  affirm  that  the  king 
was  not  supreme  head  on  earth  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land ;  in  that  (2  Edward  VI.  c.  2)  which  dropped  the 
old  form  of  election  of  bishops  under  a  conge  d'elire  and 
substituted  direct  nomination  by  letters  patent ;  and  in 
the  clause  inserted  in  their  patents  restricting  the  power 

159 


i6o   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  (as  distinguished  from  ttie 
spiritual  authority  inherent  in  the  episcopal  office)  to 
life  or  good  behaviour,  and  directing  that  it  should  be 
exercised  in  the  king's  name. 

This  leaning  towards  the  foreign  novelties  led  to  the 
invitation  of  a  number  of  foreign  divines  to  settle  in 
England  and  to  teach  their  peculiar  views  here.  Martin 
Bucer  and  Peter  Martyr  were  put  into  the  influential 
position  of  professors  of  divinity,  the  one  at  Cambridge, 
the  other  at  Oxford.  Paul  Fagius  was  made  Hebrew 
Professor  at  Cambridge. 

The  First  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI.  had  hardly 
been  brought  into  general  use  when  it  was  called  in, 
and  a  Second  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VL  (5  and  6 
Edward  VI.  c.  i),  1552,  was  issued,  which  contained 
considerable  aherations  in  the  direction  of  these  new 
opinions.  In  the  same  year  Forty-Two  Articles  of 
Religion  were  issued  of  the  same  tendency. 

In  1549  and  in  1550,  Bonner,  Bishop  of  London,  and 
Gardiner,  Bishop  ofWinchester,  were  deprived  under  the 
"good  behaviour"  clause,  their  ill-behaviour  being  that 
they  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  new  opinions  and  prac- 
tices, and  Ridley  and  Poinet  were  set  in  their  places. 

The  spoliation  of  the  Church  continued.  An  Act  of 
the  first  year  of  the  reign  renewed  that  of  the  last  year 
of  Henry  which  gave  to  the  king  the  property  of  the 
chantries  and  of  the  guilds.  Some  of  the  chantries 
were  really  chapels  of  ease,  and  many  of  the  chantry 
priests  acted  as  assistant  curates.  The  guilds  were  the 
benefit  clubs  of  the  period  ;  the  fact  that  prayer  for  the 
members  and  their  relatives,  living  and  dead,  was  one  of 
tlieir  customary  practices,  afforded  the  pretext  for  seizing 
their  property  as  devoted  to  superstitious  uses. 

The  last  gleanings  of  the  harvest  of  church  property 


THE  REFORMATION 


i6i 


were  gathered  into  the  royal  coffers  by  commissioners 
sent  by  the  king  (1553)  to  visit  all  the  cathedrals  and 
churches  and  seize  the  superfluous  plate  and  ornaments 
for  the  king's  use. 

The  arbitrary  Erastianism  of  the  Council  and  the 
theological  extremes  to  which  the  religious  changes 
were  tending,  more  than  the  disposition  of  the  courtiers 
to  complete  the  impoverishment  of  the  Church,  filled 
moderate  and  sound  churchmen  with  alarm ;  it  looked 
as  if  they  might  soon  be  driven  to  choose  between  the 
acceptance  of  the  scheme  of  doctrine  and  church  govern- 
ment of  the  Swiss  reformers  and  persecution. 

Queen  Mary,  1553. — These  fears  reconciled  many  to 
the  sudden  and  strong  reaction  which  took  place  on 
the  accession  of  Mary.  The  daughter  of  Katherine  of 
Arragon  had  steadfastly  refused  to  accept  any  of  the 
religious  changes ;  they  were  associated  in  her  mind  with 
what  she  could  not  but  regard  as  her  mother's  wrongs. 
The  coup  d'etat  by  which  Northumberland  tried  to  place 
Lady  Jane  Grey  upon  the  throne,  and  the  rebellion  of 
Wyatt,  both  in  the  name  of  reform,  added  political  reasons 
to  religious  motives  for  firm  resistance  to  innovation. 
Immediately  on  her  accession  the  queen  took  steps  to 
undo  the  reform.  Cranmer,  Ridley,  and  Latimer  were 
arrested  and  sent  to  the  Tower.  Gardiner  was  released 
from  the  Tower  and  made  chancellor  and  minister. 

A  packed  Parliament  made  little  difficulty  about  re- 
pealing the  religious  legislation  of  the  late  reign  and 
restoring  things  very  much  to  the  condition  in  which 
they  stood  at  the  close  of  Henry's  reign.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  York  and  the  bishops  of  St.  David's,  Chester, 
and  Bristol  were  deprived  for  marriage  ;  the  bishops  of 
Lincoln,  Gloucester,  and  Hereford,  consecrated  under 

S.  T.  L 


i62    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


Edward's  letters  patent,  were  dismissed  for  "ill-be- 
haviour;" Ridley  of  London,  Poynet  of  Winchester,  and 
Scory  of  Chichester  were  removed  as  intruders,  to  make 
way  for  the  bishops  of  those  Sees  who  had  been  deprived 
by  Edward.  Barlow  resigned  Bath  and  Wells.  Sixteen 
new  bishops  were  consecrated  ;  many  of  the  more  promi- 
nent and  extreme  of  the  reforming  party  fled  beyond 
sea,  but  the  great  mass  of  the  clergy  held  to  their  cures; 
probably  many  of  them  shared  the  opinion  that  it  was 
high  time  that  something  was  done  to  arrest  the  rapid 
degradation  of  the  Church.  Parliament  by  address  to 
the  queen  asked  for  reconciliation  with  Rome,  and 
Cardinal  Pole  as  legate  gave  the  nation  plenary  absolu- 
tion. Parliament  (i  and  2  Phil,  and  Mary,  c.  8)  repealed 
all  Acts  since  20  Henry  VIII.  against  the  Pope's  autho- 
rity, only  it  stipulated  for  the  security  of  all  grants  of 
church  property. 

In  1555  the  dreadful  persecution  began  which  has 
made  Mary's  reign  odious  in  the  memory  of  the  English 
people,  and  done  more  than  all  besides  to  set  the  heart 
of  the  nation  against  the  tyranny  of  Rome.  In  this 
year  Rogers,  Hooper,  Ridley,  Latimer,  and  others  were 
condemned  of  heresy  and  burned.  In  the  following 
year  (1556)  Cranmer  and  others  were  burnt,  and  Pole  was 
made  archbishop.  In  1557  the  persecution  still  con- 
tinued ;  the  total  number  of  persons  burnt  in  this  reign 
was  277,  besides  those  who  were  punished  by  imprison- 
ment, confiscation,  and  fines ;  among  them  were  5 
bishops,  21  clergymen,  8  lay  gentlemen,  84  tradesmen, 
100  husbandmen,  servants,  and  labourers,  55  women, 
and  4  children.  The  persecution  was  arrested  by  the 
death  of  the  queen.    Pole  died  on  the  following  day, 

It  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  upon  the  details  of  the 
legislation  of  Edward  VI.  or  of  Mary,  since  these  reigns 


THE  REFORMATION 


163 


may  be  regarded  as  in  a  sense  parenthetical.  The  ex- 
cesses of  this  reign,  and  the  reaction  in  the  opposite 
direction  of  the  next,  were  wiped  out  of  the  statute  book 
by  the  early  legislation  of  Elizabeth.  The  revolutionary 
policy  of  the  one  reign,  and  the  intolerance,  and  especially 
the  cruelties  of  the  other,  left  a  strong  impression  on  the 
mind  of  the  people,  and  influenced  the  future  course  of 
events ;  but  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  Elizabeth  and 
the  reforms  of  her  reign  are  the  logical  continuation  of 
those  of  the  period  of  Henry  VIII. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

Elizabeth,  1558  a.d.  —  When  Elizabeth  came  to  the 
throne,  it  was  well  known  that  she  had  adhered  to  the 
reformed  doctrine  during  the  reign  of  her  Romanist 
sister  Mary,  just  as  Mary  had  adhered  to  the  unreformed 
doctrine  during  the  reign  of  Edward;  and  it  seemed 
probable  that  the  violent  religious  changes  which  took 
place  on  Mary's  accession  would  now  be  followed  by 
equally  violent  changes  in  the  other  direction.  Elizabeth 
was  sincerely  attached  to  the  principles  of  the  Reforma- 
tion as  they  had  been  laid  down  in  her  father's  time, 
viz.,  the  assertion  of  the  independence  of  the  English 
Church  and  a  return  to  the  standards  of  the  Early 
Church,  but  she  had  no  sympathy  with  the  extreme 
views  which  had  been  introduced  in  Edward's  reign. 

The  situation  was  one  of  great  difficulty  and  danger. 
The  queen  was  fortunate  in  her  choice  of  advisers, 
Cecil  in  civil,  and  Parker  in  ecclesiastical  affairs.  Their 
ecclesiastical  policy  was  on  the  one  side  to  reassure  the 
great  body  of  moderate  people  who  desired  no  further 
great  changes,  and  on  the  other  to  conciliate  the  more 
advanced  school  of  reformers,  and  so  to  settle  the 
Reformation  on  a  permanent  basis  and  restore  peace 
and  unity. 

The  coronation  showed  at  once  the  gravity  of  the 
164 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  REFORMATION  165 


situation,  for  Oglethorpe,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  was  the 
only  diocesan  bishop  who  consented  to  take  part  in  the 
ceremony.  A  Parliament  was  at  once  summoned,  and, 
with  the  subserviency  of  all  the  Parliaments  of  the  Tudor 
reigns,  did  very  much  what  the  crown  desired  it  to  do. 
It  repealed  the  Repealing  Act  of  Mary,  but  the  legis- 
lation of  Henry  and  Edward  was  not  indiscriminately 
revived;  some  of  their  Acts  were  carefully  selected  for 
revival,  while  others  were  repealed ;  the  general  effect 
being  to  revive  the  reforms  of  Henry,  but  to  relax  the 
grasp  of  the  crown  upon  the  liberties  of  the  Church. 
The  supremacy  of  the  crown  was  reasserted  with  a 
change  of  the  title  from  Supreme  Head  to  Supreme 
Governor,  and  a  Court  of  High  Commission  was  estab- 
lished to  exercise  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  of  the 
crown.  A  trace  of  the  old  tyranny  is  seen  in  an  Act 
providing  that  for  maintaining  that  any  foreign  prince 
or  prelate  has  any  spiritual  jurisdiction  in  England,  the 
penalties  should  be  for  the  first  offence  fine  or  imprison- 
ment, for  the  second  the  penalties  of  premunire,  and 
for  the  third  those  of  treason. 

The  spoliation  of  the  Churcli  was  still  continued. 
An  Act  of  this  year  resumed  to  the  crown  the  first-fruits 
and  tenths  which  Mary  had  restored  to  the  Church,  and 
another  Act  empowered  the  queen,  on  the  avoidance  of 
any  See,  to  take  such  of  its  lands  as  she  might  think 
proper  in  exchange  for  impropriate  tithes  which  had 
come  into  the  hands  of  the  crown  with  monastic  pro- 
perties. The  Church  was  allowed  no  voice  in  the  ex- 
changes, and  got  very  much  the  worst  of  the  bargain. 

In  the  hope  of  winning  over  some  of  the  higher  clergy, 
the  queen  directed  that  a  conference  should  be  held  in 
Westminster  Abbey  between  ten  or  twelve  bishops  and 
divines  on  each  side;  but  it  was  broken  off  by  the 


1 66   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


Romanist  side,  who  had  nothing  to  gain  by  it.  In  re- 
commending the  Reformation  to  the  people,  Jewel,  in  a 
sermon  at  Paul's  Cross,  put  forth  the  points  of  difference 
in  twenty-seven  propositions,  and  gave  the  famous 
challenge  that  "if  any  one  sufficient  sentence  out  of 
any  ancient  father,  or  general  council,  or  from  Holy 
Scripture,  or  example  from  the  primitive  Church  of  the 
first  six  centuries  after  Christ,  declarative  of  the  Roman 
view  could  be  produced,  he  would  give  in  his  sub- 
mission." There  was  much  disputation  in  print  on  both 
sides.  Jewel's  Apologia  pro  Ecdesia  Anglicana  was  the 
ablest  defence  of  the  Reformation  in  the  then  state  of 
the  controversy. 

In  1559  a  new  Prayer  Book  was  confirmed  by  Con- 
vocation ^  and  authorised  by  Parliament;  it  was  the 
Second  Book  of  Edward  VI.  with  a  few  alterations  in 
the  direction  of  the  First  Book. 

In  1562  the  doctrinal  settlement  of  the  Reformation 
was  brought  to  a  conclusion.  Convocation  confirmed 
TMrty-nine  Articles  of  Religion,  which  were  for  the  most 
part  the  same  as  the  forty-two  articles  of  1552  ;  the  most 
material  difference  was  that  the  new  articles  omitted  the 
express  declaration  of  the  former  against  the  corporal 
presence  of  Christ  in  the  Sacrament. 

Certain  Injunctions  were  now  issued  by  the  crown, 
and  commissioners  were  appointed  to  tender  the  oath  of 
supremacy  to  the  bishops  and  clergy ;  this  was  accom- 
panied by  an  explanation  of  the  meaning  of  the  royal 
supremacy,  that  it  is  "under  God  to  have  the  sovereignly 
and  rule  over  all  manner  of  persons  born  within  these 

1  It  has  been  usually. supposed  that  this  Prayer  Book  was  revised 
by  a  committee  of  divines.  Mr.  Joyce,  the  historian  of  Convocation, 
has  recently  discovered  a  document  which  makes  it  seem  probable 
that  it  was  done  by  an  episcopal  synod. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  REFORMATION  167 


realms,  dominions,  and  country,  either  ecclesiastical  or 
temporal,  so  as  no  foreign  power  ought  to  have  any 
superiority  over  them."  The  title  supreme  head  had 
already  been  altered  into  supreme  governor.  This  test 
discriminated  those  of  the  clergy  who  finally  adhered  to 
the  Papacy.  "  The  whole  number  of  the  clergy  deprived 
at  this  time  for  refusing  the  oath  were  14  bishops  (out 
of  15 — 4  had  died  before  Mary's  death  and  6  imme- 
diately after)  and  3  bishops  elect,  i  abbot,  4  priors, 
and  I  abbess,  12  deans,  14  archdeacons,  60  canons  or 
prebendaries,  100  priests  well  preferred,  14  heads  of 
colleges  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  to  which  may  be 
added  about  20  doctors  in  several  faculties ;  out  of 
about  9400  spiritual  promotions." 

This  refusal  of  the  higher  clergy  to  accept  the  Re- 
formation is  very  remarkable,  especially  as  many  of  them 
had  accei)ted  the  reforms  of  Henry  and  Edward.  In 
explanation  it  may  be  said  that  the  higher  clergy,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  take  a  broad  and  deep  view  of  the  situa- 
tion, had  been  greatly  alarmed  by  the  excesses  of  the 
previous  reign,  which  had  threatened  not  only  the 
external  organisation,  but  the  essential  doctrines  and 
principles  of  the  Church.  They  dreaded  the  resumption 
of  these  dangerous  innovations,  and  probably  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  continuance  of  the  organic 
union  of  the  Church  of  England  with  the  rest  of  the 
churches  of  Europe,  under  the  headship  of  the  Bishop 
of  Rome,  was  the  greatest  protection  of  the  Church  of 
England  against  the  violent  oscillations  created  by  the 
personal  predilections  of  the  sovereign,  and  against  the 
revolutionary  designs  of  the  extreme  reformers. 

The  refusal  of  the  bishops  to  recognise  the  new 
state  of  things  left  the  Episcopate  in  a  lamentable  con- 
dition.   The  last  year  of  Mary's  reign  was  a  time  of 


168    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


terrible  mortality,  so  that  at  the  accession  of  Elizabeth 
ten  sees  were  unoccupied.  Of  the  seventeen  remaining 
sees,  only  four  were  canonically  filled,  Durham,  London, 
Llandaff,  and  Sodor  and  Man,  all  the  other  prelates 
having  been  either  illicitly  consecrated  or  translated,  so 
that  they  did  not  possess  "jurisdiction."  Of  these, 
four,  viz.,  Tunstall  of  Durham  and  Bonner  of  London, 
together  with  the  bishops  who  had  uncanonical  posses- 
sion of  the  remaining  sees,  were  deprived  by  an  abuse 
of  the  royal  power  similar  to  that  which  had  been  exer- 
cised by  Mary.  It  became  necessary  to  fill  the  vacant 
sees,  and  to  do  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  secure  a  valid  legal 
and  canonical  succession. 

Parker  was  chosen  for  the  See  of  Canterbury,  and 
was  canonically  elected  under  a  royal  conge  d'elire  in 
August.  Some  of  the  bishops  who  had  been  deprived 
in  Mary's  reign  were  restored,  and  other  eminent  divines 
were  nominated  and  elected  to  other  vacant  sees,  but 
the  consecration  of  Parker  was  delayed  until  the  following 
December. 

The  consecration  of  Parker  is  a  point  of  great  import- 
ance, because  he  was  tlie  principal  link  through  whom 
the  ancient  episcopal  succession  was  derived  to  our 
modern  bishops,  and  it  has  for  this  reason  been  made 
the  subject  of  attack  by  opponents  of  the  Church  of 
England.  The  first  attack  is  known  by  the  name  of 
"the  Nag's  Head  fable."  Forty-four  years  after  the 
event  a  story  was  started  that  all  the  consecration  Parker 
had  was  that  at  a  meeting  at  a  noted  London  tavern  of 
those  days,  several  divines  laid  a  Bible  on  the  head  of 
Parker  and  said  some  prayers.  This  story  rested  on 
the  testimony  of  a  Roman  priest  named  Holywood,  who 
stated  that  one  Neale,  a  chaplain  of  Bishop  Bonner,  had 
witnessed  the  scene  through  a  hole  in  the  door.  The 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  REFORMATION  169 


story  seems  to  have  been  a  pure  invention,  and  was 
refuted  immediately  on  its  publication,  and  is  given  up 
by  all  respectable  controversialists.  The  fact  is,  that 
every  one  concerned  understood  very  well  the  importance 
of  the  occasion,  and  that  the  greatest  care  was  taken  to 
make  every  step  in  it  legal  and  canonical  and  to  put 
every  step  on  record.  The  consecration  took  place  in 
the  chapel  of  Lambeth  Palace,  under  the  Ordinal  of 
Edward  VI.,  with  dignified  ceremonial,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  the  proper  officials  and  in  the  presence  of 
sufficient  witnesses.  The  consecrators  were  Barlow, 
formerly  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells  in  the  time  of  Henry 
and  Edward,  who  had  fled  abroad  to  avoid  the  Marian 
persecution,  and  was  now  Bishop  elect  of  Chichester; 
Hodgkin,  suffragan  Bishop  of  Bedford;  Coverdale,  ex- 
Bishop  of  Exeter;  and  Scory,  ex-Bishop  of  Chichester, 
and  now  elect  of  Hereford.  It  is  expressly  recorded  that 
all  the  consecrating  bishops  laid  their  hands  on  Parker's 
head,  and  all  repeated  the  words  of  consecration. 

The  principal  objections  taken  to  the  validity  of  the 
consecration  are  two  :  first,  that  it  cannot  be  proved  that 
Barlow,  the  chief  actor  in  the  consecration,  was  a  bishop  ; 
and  second,  that  the  act  of  consecration  was  not  valid 
because  it  did  not  include  the  presentation  of  the  insignia 
of  the  episcopal  office,  the  staff  and  ring. 

The  doubt  thrown  upon  Barlow's  episcopal  character 
is  based  upon  the  fact  that  there  is  no  official  record  of 
it  extant  either  in  the  register  of  his  own  see  of  Bath  and 
^Vells  or  in  the  register  of  Canterbury.  The  answer  is 
that  the  register  of  Bath  and  Wells  is  lost,  so  that  we 
cannot  say  whether  Barlow's  consecration  did  or  did 
not  appear  in  it :  that  the  register  of  Canterbury  at  that 
period  was  so  carelessly  kept  that  the  record  is  wanting 
of  six  out  of  twenty-six  bishops  consecrated  in  Warham's 


I70    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


time,  and  of  nine  out  of  thirty-six  in  Craumer's  time. 
But  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  Barlow,  one  of 
Henry's  statesman-bishops,  was  recognised  as  a  bishop 
by  his  brother  bishops,  by  the  House  of  Lords,  by  all  the 
world,  and  was  never  challenged  till  these  days.  But  if 
Barlow  was  not  a  bishop,  that  does  not  invalidate  the  con- 
secration, for  there  were  three  other  consecrators  whose 
episcopal  character  is  undoubted,  who  all  laid  their 
hands  on  his  head,  and  all  repeated  the  words  of  conse- 
cration. And  it  is  universally  admitted  that  though  it  is 
regular  that  four  bishops  should  assist  in  the  conse- 
cration of  an  archbishop,  the  consecration  by  one  is 
valid. 

As  to  the  other  objection,  it  is  a  comparatively  modern 
Roman  theory  that  the  matter  of  consecration  consists 
in  the  giving  of  the  staff  and  ring ;  this  ceremonial  was 
introduced  in  Mediaeval  times,  but  for  a  thousand  years 
previously  the  imposition  of  hands  was  the  essential 
matter  of  consecration,  and  so  the  great  Roman  ritual 
authorities  declared.^ 

It  may  be  convenient  to  deal  connectedly  with  the 
measures  of  the  Papist  party.  For  a  few  years  the 
Pope  entertained  hopes  that  the  Church  of  England 
would  continue  to  recognise  his  authority,  and  his  adhe- 
rents continued  to  attend  their  parish  churches ;  but  at 
length  the  hope  was  abandoned,  and  Pius  IV.,  in  1570, 
proceeded  to  excommunicate  Elizabeth,  declaring  her 
illegitimate  and  absolving  her  subjects  from  their  allegi- 
ance. His  adherents  began  thenceforward  to  withdraw 
themselves  from  the  authorised  worship.    A  college  was 

'  The  subject  has  been  exhaustively  treated  by  A.  Haddon 
in  his  edition  of  the  Works  of  Archbishop  Bramhall,  and  by  other 
modern  writers  :  the  most  recent  is  the  Rev.  E.  Denny  in  "  Anglican 
Orders  and  Jurisdiction." 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  REFORMATION  171 


established  at  St.  Omers,and  afterwards  removed  toDouay 
and  back  again  to  St.  Omers,  for  the  education  of  English 
priests  to  minister  in  secret  to  their  recusant  country- 
men, and  a  version  of  the  New  Testament  was  put  forth 
in  1582,  the  Old  Testament  in  1609-10,  which  continue 
to  be  the  English  Bible  of  the  Papal  party  to  the  present 
time. 

The  fanatics  of  the  party  began,  as  at  the  beginning  ot 
Mary's  reign,  to  contemplate  political  revolution  as  the 
best  means  of  reversing  the  religious  state  of  things  ;  and 
during  the  great  part  of  Elizabeth's  reign  her  life  was 
threatened  and  the  kingdom  harassed  by  a  succession 
of  Popish  plots.  It  was  the  act  of  the  court  of  France 
rather  than  that  of  the  young  and  beautiful  Mary  Stuart, 
then  living  in  France  as  the  wife  of  the  Dauphin,  that 
her  claims  to  the  English  throne  were  put  forward  on 
the  death  of  Mary,  and  that  she  assumed  the  title  of 
Queen  of  England;  but  Mary  never  repudiated  the 
claim,  and  it  was  the  basis  of  several  plots,  and  a  con- 
stant source  of  disquietude.  It  was  the  cause  of  the 
rising  in  the  North  under  the  Earls  of  Northumberland 
and  Westmorland  in  1569,  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk's 
plot  with  Spanish  aid  in  1571-72,  and  of  Babington's 
conspiracy  to  kill  the  queen  in  1588.  The  hard  treat- 
ment of  recusants,  the  execution  of  Jesuit  emissaries 
and  seminary  priests,  were  due  more  to  State  policy 
than  to  religious  intolerance.  The  very  fact  of  their 
acceptance  of  the  Papal  supremacy  was  enough  to 
carry  with  it  a  suspicion  of  disloyalty,  seeing  that  the 
Pope  had  declared  Elizabeth  deprived  of  her  throne 
and  forbidden  her  subjects  to  obey  her  on  pain  of 
excommunication. 

The  execution  of  Mary  Stuart  in  1587  delivered  the 
queen  and  kingdom  from   the  dangers  of  internal 


172   HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 


treason ;  the  defeat  of  the  Grand  Armada  in  the  follow- 
ing year  (1588),  from  the  dangers  of  foreign  invasion. 
During  the  latter  portion  of  the  reign  the  kingdom  was 
at  peace  and  the  Reformation  was  secure. 

This  peace  and  security,  however,  left  Puritanism 
predominant  in  the  Church,  and  for  this  the  reign  of 
Mary  is  to  blame.  The  horrible  burnings  in  the  late 
reign  had  created  in  the  popular  mind  a  hatred  of  Rome 
and  of  everything  which  seemed  to  be  a  remnant  of 
Rome  or  a  tendency  towards  it.  The  exiles  of  the 
Marian  reign  had  returned  full  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
communities  among  whom  they  had  sojourned.  The 
sufferings  of  these  exiles  ensured  them  popularity  on 
their  return  to  their  own  country ;  some  of  the  most 
eminent  of  them  had  been  promoted  to  places  of  dignity 
and  influence  in  the  Church.  The  party  was  strongly 
represented  both  in  Parliment  and  Convocation,  and 
had  powerful  protectors  at  court. 

In  1564-65  the  queen  called  the  attention  of  the 
archbishop  to  the  want  of  conformity  of  many  of  the 
clergy,  and  desired  him  to  enforce  discipline.  The  arch- 
bishop, assisted  by  other  commissioners  in  causes  ecclesi- 
astical, accordingly  drew  up  a  set  of  Advertisements  or 
ordinances  on  the  subject  of  the  ordinary  apparel  of  the 
clergy,  their  ministerial  vestments,  the  mode  of  cele- 
brating divine  worship,  &c.  The  queen  refused  to 
confirm  them,  and  they  went  out  under  the  authority 
of  the  commissioners.  A  considerable  number  of  the 
clergy  still  refused  to  con.^orm,  and  were  suspended  and 
sequestrated. 

The  Nonconformists  put  forth  their  case  in  an  Ad- 
monition to  Parliament,  of  which  Cartwright  was  believed 
to  be  the  principal  author.  This  was  answered  by 
Whitgift.  then  Master  of  Trinity.    Cartwright,  a  deacon 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  REFORMATION  173 


in  the  Church  of  England,  and  a  man  of  some  learning 
and  ability,  had  been  one  of  the  Marian  exiles.  Soon 
after  his  return  he  was  made  Lady  Margaret  Lecturer  in 
Divinity  at  Cambridge,  and  took  advantage  of  his  position 
to  teach  the  Genevan  doctrine  and  discipline,  and  was 
removed  by  the  University  authorities.  Thereupon  he 
set  up  a  Presbjrterian  Society  (1572)  at  Wandsworth, 
and  began  to  practise  what  he  had  preached.  In  1593, 
however,  he  came  to  a  better  mind,  and  was  reconciled 
and  restored  to  his  benefice ;  but  he  could  not  undo 
the  mischief  he  had  set  on  foot. 

Archbishop  Parker  died  in  1576,  and  was  succeeded 
by  Grindal,  a  man  who  sympathised  with  the  scruples 
of  the  Nonconformists,  and  whose  laxity  of  discipline 
allowed  them  great  latitude.  At  length  the  queen  called 
upon  the  archbishop  to  put  a  stop  to  the  prophesyings, 
which  in  so  many  cases  were  really  dissenting  con- 
venticles ;  and  on  his  refusal  he  was  suspended  from 
jurisdiction,  and  continued  so  till  his  death  a  few  months 
afterwards. 

In  1582  a  considerable  number  of  Puritan  ministers 
held  a  council  in  London,  and  agreed  to  act  upon  a 
Book  of  Discipline  which  Cartwright  had  drawn  up. 
Its  general  policy  was  that  the  Puritan  clergy  should 
retain  their  places  in  the  Church,  as  their  predecessors 
had  done  through  the  changes  of  the  previous  reigns, 
and  should  preach  their  own  doctrines  and  introduce 
their  own  practices  so  far  as  circumstances  would  allow. 
The  course  amounted  almost  to  a  conspiracy  to  intro- 
duce Calvinism  under  cover  of  the  lawful  order.  Their 
plan  was  to  create  over  the  kingdom  an  ecclesiastical 
organisation  of  classical,  district,  and  general  assemblies ; 
the  class  consisting  of  a  few  neighbouring  ministers, 
generally  about  twelve,  well  affected  to  the  party ;  the 


174    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


district  including  several  of  these  classes,  so  that  there 
were  about  three  in  a  county  ;  and  the  general  assembly 
being  a  synod  of  the  whole  body.  The  clergy  of  their 
persuasion  nominated  to  a  benefice  were  to  apply  to 
the  dassis  in  which  the  benefice  was  situated  and  obtain 
its  sanction  before  accepting  the  bishop's  induction  into 
the  benefice,  which  was  treated  as  a  mere  formal  recog- 
nition by  the  State  official.  The  scheme  provided  for 
electing  churchwardens  and  collectors  for  the  poor  of 
their  party  and  giving  them  the  Calvinist  status  of  lay 
elders  and  deacons.  Puritan  incumbents  were  to  dis- 
pense as  far  as  possible  with  the  legal  ritual  of  the 
Prayer  Book  ;  they  were  to  teach  the  scriptural  character 
of  the  Calvinist  organisation  and  discipline  as  well  as 
doctrine.  Arrangements  were  made  for  the  propagation 
and  support  of  the  Puritan  cause  in  parishes  whose  in- 
cumbents were  not  of  their  party.  One  method  was 
by  instituting  lecturers  of  their  views.  An  old  privilege 
of  the  universities  was  taken  advantage  of  to  appoint 
twelve  lecturers  who  had  a  right  to  preach  in  any  parish. 
Another  method  was  to  found  lectureships  in  important 
town  churches,  which  gave  their  preachers  access  to  the 
pulpit  for  an  afternoon  or  evening  sermon.  Another 
device  was  the  holding  of  what  they  called  "Prophesy- 
ings,"  irregular  meetings  for  prayer  and  exposition  of 
the  Scriptures,  which,  when  conducted  in  harmony  with 
the  Church's  system,  might  be  useful  auxiliaries,  but  in 
opposition  were  simply  dissenting  conventicles,  in  which 
ministers  who  had  been  silenced  for  nonconformity,  and 
laymen,  often  took  the  opportunity  to  put  forward  their 
views.  One  way  of  dealing  with  the  regular  church 
service  was  to  let  a  curate,  or  even  a  layman,  say  the 
prayers,  and  then  for  the  incumbent  or  lecturer  to  come 
in,  in  Geneva  gown,  in  time  to  go  into  the  pulpit ;  there 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  REFORMATION  175 


he  would  conduct  a  supplementary  service,  viz.,  a  psalm, 
a  short  address  introductory  of  the  prayer,  a  long  ex- 
tempore prayer,  then  the  sermon,  followed  by  other 
extempore  prayers  and  psalmody. 

In  such  ways  as  these  the  minds  of  the  people, 
especially  in  the  great  towns,  were  leavened  with  Cal- 
vinism, and  the  way  was  prepared  for  the  great  events 
which  happened  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I. 

It  was  not,  then,  antipathy  to  Rome,  or  their  special 
views  on  election  and  grace,  which  made  the  Puritan 
party  so  popular.  It  was  the  maintenance  of  certain 
principles  which  had  fallen  into  the  background — the 
principle  of  individualism  in  religion  ;  the  freedom  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  from  the  royal  interference  of  which 
the  late  reigns  had  afforded  such  violent  examples  ;  the 
rights  of  the  laity  in  the  conduct  of  church  affairs ;  but 
it  was  more  than  anything  else  the  personal  character 
which  seemed  to  go  with  the  doctrine,  the  strong  faith 
in  God's  government  of  the  world,  the  ascetic  piety, 
the  fervent  religious  zeal.  The  weakness  of  the  party 
was  that  its  adherents  tended  to  be  narrow,  unchari- 
table, sour,  almost  Manichasan,  and  that  the  necessity 
of  affecting  an  exalted  strain  of  piety  by  the  average 
adherents  of  the  partly  inevitably  led  to  a  vast  amount 
of  hypocrisy.  The  controversy  brought  forth  the 
Ecclesiastical  Polity  of  the  "Judicious  Hooker,"  which 
for  wide  and  deep  learning,  sound  judgment,  controver- 
sial skill,  and  stately  eloquence,  is  one  of  the  literary 
treasures  of  the  Church  of  England. 

Whitgift  (1583)  succeeded  to  the  archbishopric,  a  man 
of  learning  and  piety,  and  possessing  the  statesmanlike 
capacity  and  firmness  which  the  ofifice  and  the  time 
needed.  He  held  the  ultra-Augustinian  doctrines  of 
grace  which  by  this  time  were  predominant  in  England, 


176    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


but  with  a  firm  belief  in  the  lawfulness  (to  say  the 
least)  of  the  constitution  and  discipline  of  the  Church, 
and  a  strong  conviction  that  it  was  for  the  welfare 
of  religion  that  lawless  disobedience  should  not  be 
tolerated.  He  took  successful  pains,  however,  to  win 
men  over  by  argument  and  kindness,  and  though  firm, 
was  not  harsh  in  his  administration.  He  had  the 
satisfaction,  as  has  been  said,  of  winning  Cartwright  back 
from  the  more  extreme  of  his  opinions,  and  restoring 
him  to  his  benefice  in  Warwick. 

In  his  episcopate  another  set  of  opinions  emerged 
out  of  the  midst  of  the  Nonconformist  ranks  and  crystal- 
lised into  a  definite  sect.  Robert  Brown,  a  clergyman, 
taught  that  any  assembly  of  Christian  men  were  at  liberty 
to  form  themselves  into  a  congregation,  to  formulate 
their  own  creed,  appoint  their  own  ministers,  and 
regulate  their  own  church  life,  and,  while  maintaining 
independence  of  all  other  churches,  to  be  recognised 
by  them  all  as  a  church.  Brown  himself  eventually  re- 
nounced his  errors  and  returned  to  the  Church,  but  his 
principles  were  taken  up  by  others  and  propagated  with 
great  zeal.  Among  the  most  active  of  these  Independents 
were  Penry,  Barrowe,  and  Greenwood.  Their  principal 
mode  of  propagating  their  opinions  was  by  a  series  of 
pamphlets,  of  which  two,  called  "  Martin- Marprelate," 
gave  a  generic  title  to  the  rest.  They  were  attacks  upon 
bishops  and  clergy  and  the  Church  and  its  ordinances, 
written  with  great  spirit  and  considerable  ability,  and 
with  a  coarse  scurrility  which  made  them  very  popular ; 
they  included  also  attacks  on  civil  authority  which  were 
not  less  than  seditious.  A  secret  press,  removed  from 
place  to  place,  printed  these  pamphlets,  which  were 
very  largely  circulated  and  read  with  avidity.  It  is  not 
surprising,  considering  the  harshness  of  the  laws  and  the 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  REFORMATION  177 


temper  of  the  times,  that  Penry  was  arrested,  tried  under 
25  Eliz.  c.  I,  and  executed  (1593). 

The  accession  of  James  to  the  throne  of  England 
awoke  new  hopes  in  those  who  were  dissatisfied  with  the 
state  of  the  Church  in  England.  His  personal  bringing 
up,  in  the  straitest  school  of  Puritanism,  his  official  con- 
formity to  the  Scottish  Kirk,  modelled  on  the  lines  of  the 
Genevan  polity,  raised  the  expectation  that  the  new 
king  would  favour  the  Calvinistic  school  in  England. 
The  result  of  forcing  Puritan  doctrine  and  discipline  with 
harshness  upon  an  unwilling  mind  had  not  been  suffi- 
ciently taken  into  account.  While  on  his  journey  south- 
ward a  petition  was  presented  to  the  king  called  the 
Millenary  Petition,  because  it  was  intended  to  be  signed 
by  a  thousand  ministers,  "though  there  wanted  some 
hundreds  to  complete  the  number,"  ^  on  the  services,  and 
on  ministers  and  their  maintenance,  and  on  discipline. 
The  king  commanded  a  conference  to  be  held  between 
the  two  parties  who  divided  the  Church,  represented 
by  certain  bishops  and  divines  on  one  side  and  some  of 
the  leading  Nonconformist  ministers  on  the  other.  The 
conference,  held  in  the  presence  of  the  king  and  certain 
of  his  privy  council,  from  the  place  of  meeting  is  known 
as  the  Hampton  Court  Conference.  It  is  a  little  surpris- 
ing that  the  objections  raised  against  the  Church  were 
so  unimportant  and  so  feebly  supported ;  the  objectors 
seem  to  have  abandoned  the  more  serious  positions  taken 
up  by  Cartwright,  and  only  asked  for  an  explanation  of 
some  ambiguous  things  in  a  more  decidedly  Calvinistic 
sense,  for  some  ritual  modifications,  such  as  the  disuse 
of  the  ring  in  marriage,  of  sponsors,  and  the  sign  of  the 
cross  in  baptism,  and  for  leave  for  those  who  pleased  to 


'  Collier,  Ecclesiastical  Ilistoty  of  Great  Britain. 

5.  T.  M 


178    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


disuse  the  clerical  habit  and  vestments.  The  bishops 
noted  a  few  of  the  objections  which  had  been  made  to 
the  Prayer  Book,  and  made  a  few  modifications  in  ac- 
cordance with  them,  and  at  the  same  time  took  the 
opportunity  to  add  a  prayer  for  the  royal  family,  the 
thanksgivings  for  special  occasions,  and  the  latter  part 
of  the  catechism  on  the  Sacrament.  The  king  issued  a 
proclamation  stating  the  result  of  the  conference  :  that  he 
and  the  council  had  found  strong  remonstrances  sup- 
ported by  slender  proofs,  and  no  sufficient  reason  for 
any  changes  in  those  things  most  clamoured  against ; 
wherefore  he  enjoined  a  general  conformity. 

The  Parliament  passed  an  Act  (i  Jac.  I.  c.  3)  dis- 
abling the  crown  from  receiving  conveyances  of  epis- 
copal estates ;  "  thus  the  king  stopped  the  issue  of 
sacrilege  and  delivered  himself  from  the  importunity  of 
courtiers." 

The  Convocation  summoned  with  this  Parliament 
passed  a  Book  of  Canons  which  was  afterwards  ratified 
by  the  king's  consent.  These  canons  of  1603  are  a 
witness  to  the  opinions  of  that  period,  and  are  still  legally 
in  force,  except  where  expressly  repealed ;  the  change  of 
time  and  circumstances  has  left  many  of  them  obsolete. 
A  few  months  after  the  beginning  of  the  new  reign 
Whitgift  died,  and  Bancroft  was  raised  from  London  to 
the  archiepiscopal  See  (1604  a.d.).  Bancroft  governed 
with  vigour,  and  pressed  for  conformity  with  so  much 
success,  that  the  services  of  the  Church  were  more 
solemnly  performed,  the  fasts  and  festivals  better  ob- 
served, the  use  of  copes  revived  and  the  surplice  worn, 
and  things  generally  brought  back  to  the  first  settlement 
under  Elizabeth.  About  forty-nine  clergymen  were  de- 
prived for  refusing  the  Prayer  Book  and  canons.  These 
continued  their  agitation  by  the  publication  of  a  pamphlet 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  REFORMATION  i79 


entitled  the  Abridgement  and  others,  and  kept  alive 
the  dissenting  opposition. 

Some  zealots  of  the  Papist  party,  seeing  their  last 
hopes  destroyed  by  the  accession  of  James,  conceived 
a  plot  to  blow  up  the  king,  his  two  sons,  and  the 
two  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  to  lay  the  plot  upon  the 
Puritans  ;  to  proclaim  Elizabeth,  the  king's  little  daughter, 
as  queen,  and  so  by  degrees  bring  back  Popery  upon 
the  kingdom.  This  Gunpowder  Plot  was  discovered, 
several  of  the  conspirators  executed,  and  the  general 
horror  of  the  intended  atrocity  served  to  alienate  the 
public  mind  still  further  from  any  lingering  sympathies 
with  the  Pope's  adherents. 

I 
I 


I 


CHAPTER  XIX 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS 

Charles  I.— The  Tudor  absolutism  had  been  mitigated 
in  the  reign  of  a  popular  female  sovereign  ruling  through 
wise  and  prudent  ministers  ;  it  fell  into  ill  odour  in  the 
hands  of  the  first  Stuart,  who  used  extravagant  language 
about  the  divine  right  of  kings,  but  ruled  by  unworthy 
favourites,  feebly,  and  above  all  unsuccessfully.  A 
strong  and  widespread  desire  had  gradually  grown  up 
in  the  time  of  James  for  constitutional  checks  upon  the 
power  of  the  crown  and  for  guarantees  of  the  liberties  of 
the  subject. 

At  the  same  time,  in  the  sphere  of  religion  a  reaction 
had  set  in  against  the  dominant  Calvinist  theology  in 
favour  of  the  principles  of  the  earlier  phase  of  the  Refor- 
mation, and  by  the  end  of  James's  reign  the  reaction  was 
rapidly  spreading  among  the  people,  and  its  leaders 
were  beginning  to  obtain  positions  of  influence  in  the 
Church  J  notably  Laud,  its  ablest  representative,  had 
been  promoted  to  the  episcopacy.  Charles  I.  came  to 
the  throne  (1625  a.d.)  when  these  opposite  principles  in 
Church  and  State  were  about  to  enter  upon  a  great  con- 
test for  the  ascendancy. 

Charles  possessed  considerable  learning,  political  ability, 
and  good  intentions ;  he  began  his  reign  by  continuing 
his  father's  policy  with  his  father's  minister,  Buckingham  ; 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS  i8i 


but  on  summoning  Parliament,  he  soon  found  that  it 
was  no  longer  content  to  play  the  subordinate  part  to 
which  it  had  been  reduced  in  previous  reigns,  that  of 
granting  supplies  and  passing  the  bills  prepared  by 
the  king's  ministers;  it  was  resolved  to  exercise  an 
efficient  control  over  the  royal  power.  Three  succes- 
sive Parliaments  were  summoned,  only  to  be  speedily 
dissolved.  Then  the  king,  with  the  Earl  of  Straf- 
ford and  Laud,  by  that  time  archbishop,  for  his 
ministers,  resolved  to  rule  without  a  Parliament ;  using 
irregular,  not  to  say  illegal,  modes  of  raising  neces- 
sary funds.  The  experiment  lasted  for  eleven  years 
(1629-1640),  when  the  king  was  obliged  to  recognise  its 
failure. 

Laud  was  all  the  while  the  leader  of  the  High  Church 
reaction  against  Puritanism.  When  raised  to  the  arch- 
bishopric (1633  A.D.),  he  carried  out,  in  concert  with 
Neale,  Archbishop  of  York,  a  general  metropolitical 
visitation  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the  observance 
of  Prayer  Book  and  canons.  He  met  with  a  stubborn 
resistance  in  many  places,  and  had  to  proceed  against 
some  of  the  Puritan  clergy  in  the  court  of  High  Com- 
mission, which  coerced  the  offenders  by  suspension  or 
deprivation.  A  cry  was  raised  against  him  that  he  was 
secretly  bent  on  restoring  the  Papal  authority ;  it  was 
utterly  untrue,  but  the  dread  of  Rome  made  the  masses 
suspicious  and  unreasonable.  Laud  tried  to  counteract 
this  move  of  his  opponents  by  citing  three  of  them, 
Prynne,  Bastwick,  and  Burton,  before  the  Star  Chamber 
(1637),  where  he  made  an  able  explanation  and  defence 
of  his  ecclesiastical  policy,  to  which  people  gave  no  heed, 
and  the  condemnation  of  the  accused  to  the  pillory  for 
their  slanders  simply  had  the  effect  of  causing  them  to 
be  regarded  as  martyrs, 


i82    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


In  justice  to  Charles,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
he  had  inherited  the  state  system  of  the  Tudors,  and 
that  under  that  system  England  had  become  great  and 
prosperous  ;  and  that  the  English  nation  was  the  first  to 
assert  the  principles  of  constitutional  government,  which 
all  civilised  nations  have  since  more  or  less  adopted. 
It  is  possible  to  sympathise  very  honestly  with  both 
sides.  It  is  possible  to  sympathise  with  the  king,  who, 
conscious  of  his  intention  to  rule  wisely  and  well,  found 
his  government  thwarted  and  embarrassed,  and  was 
alarmed  at  the  new  spirit  and  the  new  claims,  which 
threatened  to  disorganise  all  government,  to  enfeeble 
the  kingdom  in  its  foreign  relations,  and  endanger  its 
domestic  quiet  and  prosperity.  It  is  possible  to  sym- 
pathise with  the  spirit  of  the  English  people,  which  was 
resolved  no  longer  to  leave  its  liberties  to  the  chance 
of  the  good  or  bad  disposition  of  the  sovereign,  but  to 
secure  constitutional  guarantees  for  personal  freedom 
and  good  government. 

Affairs  came  to  a  crisis  when  the  Scots  broke  out 
into  rebellion  (1640  a.d.),  invaded  England,  and  seized 
Newcastle.  The  king  summoned  another  Parliament  to 
vote  measures  for  meeting  the  emergency ;  but  Parlia- 
ment saw  its  opportunity  in  the  king's  extremity,  and 
still  resolutely  persisted  in  discussing  grievances  before 
voting  supplies.  The  king  and  his  advisers  seemed  at 
length  to  have  recognised  the  character  of  the  political 
situation,  and  to  have  made  up  their  minds  to  yield  to 
the  nation's  demands.  Parliament  was  dissolved ;  the 
king  summoned  a  Council  of  Peers  at  York,  and  con- 
sented to  adopt  constitutional  principles,  and  made  a 
treaty  with  the  Scots ;  then  he  summoned  a  fifth  Parlia- 
ment with  the  intention  of  settling  a  constitutional  com- 
promise.   The  Long  Parliament  met  November  3,  1640. 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS  183 

The  king's  ministers  were  sacrificed  to  the  popular  anger. 
Strafford  and  Laud  were  ordered  into  custody  and  sent 
to  the  Tower.  In  the  first  session  the  king  formally  ~ 
abandoned  the  encroachments  which  he  had  made  upon 
the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  subject,  and  granted  con- 
cessions which  made  those  rights  and  liberties  more 
ample,  better  defined,  and  more  secure  than  ever  before. 
"  There  was  not  a  public  or  private  grievance,"  says  Hume, 
"  but  what  was  redressed  within  the  first  nine  months  of 
the  meeting  of  the  Parliament." 

Many  of  the  most  patriotic  of  those  who  had  been 
alienated  by  the  arbitrary  measures  of  the  earlier  part 
of  the  reign  now  rallied  to  the  side  of  the  king.  The 
several  parties  in  Church  and  State  had  made  the  alli- 
ances which  were  natural.  The  High  Church  party 
had  allied  themselves  with  the  party  of  the  king ; 
the  Puritan  party  had  allied  themselves  with  Parlia- 
ment and  advocated  the  kindred  Presbyterian  form  of 
government  in  the  Church.  The  nation  was  divided 
into  two  camps,  the  king  and  Church  on  one  side, 
and  on  the  other  the  Parliament  and  Presbyterians. 
The  king  had  made  the  fatal  mistake  in  policy  of 
assenting  to  a  bill  enacting  that  the  Parliament  should 
not  be  dissolved  except  by  its  own  consent,  and  had 
thus  elevated  the  Parliament  into  a  rival  power  in  the 
kingdom  with  which  henceforward  he  had  to  deal ; 
and  it  soon  became  evident  that  the  Parliamentary-Pres- 
byterian party  was  prepared  to  go  to  the  length  of  civil 
war  to  attain  its  ends. 

The  civil  history  of  the  time  must  be  referred  to  for 
a  narrative  of  the  civil  war ;  it  is  only  the  religious  part 
of  the  lamentable  strife  which  can  be  outlined  here. 

Three  days  after  the  meeting  of  Parliament  the  House 
of  Commons  formed  itself  into  a  Committee  of  Religion, 


i84    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


and  relegated  the  business  to  a  sub-committee,  who  set 
themselves  vigorously  to  work  to  purge  the  Church  of 
"scandalous  ministers."  This  committee  appointed  sub- 
committees in  every  county,  and  a  paper  was  issued 
inviting  "all  ingenuous  persons  in  every  county  of  the 
kingdom  to  be  very  active  to  improve  the  present  oppor- 
tunity." Afterwards  other  papers  were  published  setting 
forth  that  "  it  is  found  by  sad  experience  that  parishioners 
are  not  forward  to  complain  of  their  ministers,"  and  paid 
agents  were  therefore  appointed  to  go  about  and  get  up 
accusations  against  them— a  trade  which  was  vulgarly 
called  "parson-hunting."  The  accusation  of  two  or 
three  "aggrieved  parishioners,"  or  even  of  one,  was 
enough  to  put  a  clergyman  on  his  trial  before  one  of 
the  committees.  The  accusation  was  not  required  to  be 
proved  on  oath.  Conformity  to  the  doctrines  and  ritual 
of  the  "  Laudian  School,"  attachment  to  the  royal  party, 
were  offences  under  the  name  of  "  malignity;  "  to  these 
were  often  added  charges  of  immorality  of  various  kinds, 
a  common  device  with  the  assailants  of  clergymen,  as 
calculated  to  make  them  odious  in  the  sight  of  men ; 
as  Dugdale  says,  "their  enemies  put  this  charge  upon 
them,  as  the  ancient  pagans  put  skins  of  wild  beasts  on 
the  holy  martyrs,  to  make  the  dogs  worry  them." 

These  earlier  proceedings  against  the  clergy  (1640- 
1643),  Baxter,  himself  a  Puritan,  says  drove  out  half  the 
clergy,  leaving  half  who  could  do  neither  good  nor  harm. 
To  complete  the  story  here,  many  of  the  latter  half 
were  driven  out  later,  as  the  various  parts  of  the  country 
came  under  the  power  of  the  Parliament  (1643-1649), 
for  refusing  to  take  "the  Covenant,"  which  required 
them  to  destroy  Prelacy  (i.e.,  the  Episcopal  form  of 
church  government),  and  to  support  the  Parliament 
against  the  king.    In  all,  it  is  estimated  that  about  8000 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS  185 

of  the  clergy  were  ejected  from  their  benefices.  Their 
fate  was  various.  Some,  to  avoid  ill-treatifilnt^and  im- 
prisonment, fled  and  hid  themselves  or  went  abroad. 
Others  less  fortunate  were  arrested  and  imprisoned. 
When  the  jails  were  filled,  hulks  were  used  as  places  of 
imprisonment.  There  was  talk  at  one  time  of  relieving 
the  overcrowded  prisons  by  selling  the  prisoners  to  the 
American  plantations  or  to  the  Algerines.  Rigby,  a 
member  of  Parliament,  twice  brought  before  Parliament 
a  motion  that  they  should  be  sold.  What  became  of 
the  majority  is  unknown,  but  this  fact  is  full  of  signifi- 
cance, that  on  the  Restoration,  when  the  ejected  clergy 
returned  to  their  livings,  there  were  only  800  left  out  of 
the  8000  to  claim  their  own  again. ^ 

In  January  1641  commissioners  were  appointed  by 
Parliament  to  deface  and  remove  all  images  and  super- 
stitious ornaments  in  churches.  There  are  some  details 
on  record  of  the  way  in  which  these  commissioners 
destroyed  sculptured  screens,  sepulchral  monuments, 
stained  windows,  and  other  monuments  of  antiquity. 
On  December  30,  the  Bishops  being  prevented  by  the 
mob  from  attending  the  House  of  Lords,  issued  a  pro- 
test against  anything  done  in  their  absence.  The  House 
of  Commons  took  advantage  of  it  as  a  pretext  for  arrest- 
ing them  and  sending  them  to  the  Tower.  On  February 
14,  1642,  the  Bishops  were  deprived  of  their  seats  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  On  April  15  the  Parliament  usurped 
the  powers  of  government  and  proceeded  to  raise  money 
and  troops.  August  22,  the  King  raised  his  standard  at 
Nottingham  and  the  Civil  War  began.    It  extended  over 

*  In  all  the  history  of  the  Church  of  England  there  is  not  so 
lamentable  a  chapter  as  that  which  records  the  details  of  this 
bitter  persecution.  It  will  be  found  in  Walker's  "  Sufferings  of  the 
Clergy." 


1 86    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ENGLAND 


the  next  nine  years,  included  seven  great  battles  and 
innumerable  minor  engagements,  and  filled  the  country 
with  confusion  and  misery.  During  the  winter  Parlia- 
ment entered  into  a  Solemn  League  and  Covenant 
with  the  Scots,  which  pledged  them  to  mutual  defence, 
and  bound  all  who  subscribed  to  it  to  extirpate  Popery, 
Prelacy,  superstition,  heresy,  and  schism,  and  to  support 
the  cause  of  the  Parliament.  All  holders  of  ofifice  in 
Church  and  State  were  required  to  "take  the  Covenant," 
and  those  who  refused  were  deprived. 

On  February  2,  1643,  an  Assembly  of  Divines  was 
nominated  by  Parliament  to  consult  and  advise  on  mat- 
ters of  religion ;  it  was  the  Presbyterian  substitute  for  the 
old  Convocation.  The  Independents  pleaded  before 
this  Assembly  for  the  toleration  of  their  worship,  and 
were  refused ;  the  object  of  the  Puritan  party  was 
not  toleration,  but  the  general  enforcement  of  their  own 
opinions.  When  the  Independents  published  an  Apology 
and  requested  leave  not  to  be  compelled  to  communicate 
in  the  churches  of  their  parishes,  but  to  be  at  liberty  to 
form  congregations  of  their  own,  the  Assembly  of  Divines 
replied,  that  "  to  gather  churches  out  of  true  churches  is 
repugnant  to  the  Word  of  God,"  that  it  "  would  encourage 
perpetual  schism  and  division  in  the  Church,  always 
drawing  off  from  the  existing  churches,"  and  "thus 
would  give  rise  to  misunderstandings  and  animosities." 
When  the  Independents  offered  to  maintain  occasional 
communion,  the  Presbyterians  replied,  that  "  if  the  Inde- 
pendents can  occasionally  attend  their  worship  and  com- 
municate with  them,  they  cannot  see  why  they  should  not 
do  it  always,  and  so  separation  and  church  gathering 
would  be  unnecessary."  When  conscientious  scruples 
were  pleaded,  the  divines  answered  that  "by  parity  of 
reasoning  the  Church  might  be  broken  into  as  many 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS  187 


subdivisions  as  there  are  different  scruples  in  the  minds 
of  men." 

In  order  to  supply  the  places  of  the  ejected  clergy, 
in  1623  a  Parliamentary  ordinance  empowered  certain 
members  of  the  Assembly  of  Divines  to  examine  and 
ordain  candidates  for  the  ministry  and  license  them  to 
preach.  In  the  following  year  this  power  was  extended 
to  the  classical  presbyteries  (see  p.  174)  within  their 
respective  boundaries ;  and  in  the  following  year  an  ordi- 
nance forbade  unordained  men  to  preach. 

1645,  August  24,  St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  a  Parlia- 
mentary ordinance  came  into  force  which  abolished  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  required  the  Directory 
of  Public  Worship  to  be  used  in  all  churches.  The 
Directory  was  to  be  observed  under  a  penalty  of  40s. 
for  each  omission,  and  who  ever  spoke  against  the 
Directory  was  to  be  fined  not  less  than  nor  more 
than  ;^so.  The  Directory  gave  only  general  rules; 
prescribed  the  heads  of  prayer  before  sermon,  leaving 
the  language  to  the  minister;  and  the  method  of  the 
sermon,  where  the  minister  was  allowed  by  the  Presby- 
tery to  preach ;  in  the  prayer  after  sermon  some  of  its 
more  useful  heads  were  directed  to  be  turned  into  peti- 
tions. The  dead  were  to  be  buried  without  any  prayer 
or  religious  ceremony ;  the  forms  for  matrimony,  visita- 
tion of  the  sick,  and  some  other  occasions  were  left  to 
the  discretion  of  the  minister.  The  penalty  for  using 
the  Prayer  Book,  either  in  public  or  in  private,  was 

for  the  first  offence,  ;^io  for  the  second,  and  a  year's 
imprisonment  for  the  third. 

1646,  October.  Episcopacy  was  abolished  by  Parlia- 
ment. 

1647,  The  king  put  himself  into  the  hands  of  the 
Scottish   army,   which   sold   him   to  Parliament  for 


i88    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

;^2oo,ooo.  Parliament  desired  to  make  a  treaty  with 
the  king  which  would  have  given  England  a  government 
by  Parliament  with  a  king  under  it,  and  would  have 
settled  the  Presbyterian  form  of  church  government  and 
Calvinistic  doctrine  as  the  Established  Church ;  but 
the  negotiations  came  to  nothing  through  the  king's 
refusal  to  sacrifice  the  constitution  and  doctrine  of  the 
Church  to  the  demands  of  the  Presbyterian  party.  It  is 
this  fact,  that  Charles's  steadfast  maintenance  of  the 
Church  cost  him  his  crown  and  his  life,  which  seemed  to 
the  Church  of  after  times  to  justify  his  commemoration 
in  the  Church's  calendar  as  "  king  and  martyr."  "  No 
candid  reader,"  says  Hallam,  "  can  doubt  that  a  serious 
sense  of  obligation  was  predominant  in  Charles's  perse- 
vering fidelity  to  the  English  Church."  Tlie  attempt 
to  blast  the  king's  character  with  a  charge  of  untrust- 
worthiness  in  these  negotiations  was  a  politic  device  of 
his  enemies ;  Hume  and  Hallam  both  acquit  him  of 
the  charge. 

The  Parliament  became  alarmed  at  the  attitude  of 
some  of  the  principal  officers  of  the  army,  and  proposed 
to  disperse  the  danger  by  disbanding  the  army ;  but  the 
principal  officers  formed  themselves  into  a  council, 
assured  themselves  of  the  adhesion  of  their  regiments, 
and  then  seized  the  king's  person,  marched  on  London, 
excluded  from  the  House  of  Commons  the  members 
unfriendly  to  their  cause,  and  made  themselves  masters 
of  the  situation. 

1649,  January  29.  The  king  was  executed,  in  spite  of 
the  remonstrances  of  the  Presbyterian  ministers.  Parlia- 
ment abolished  monarchy  and  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
elected  a  Council  of  State. 

1653.  Cromwell  at  the  head  of  the  army  was  master 
of  the  situation  ;  he  turned  the  "  Rump  Parliament "  by 


THE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS  189 

force  out  of  the  House,  and  formed  a  Council  of  State  of 
which  he  was  chief.  A  Parliament  of  his  own  nominees 
— the  Barebones  Parliament — offered  him  the  govern- 
ment for  life  with  the  title  of  Lord  Protector. 

Cromwell  found  it  as  difficult  to  govern  with  a  factious 
Parliament  as  Charles  had  done,  and  solved  the  diffi- 
culty in  a  similar  way  by  ruling  without  a  Parliament. 
He  divided  the  country  into  districts,  over  each  of  which 
he  placed  a  Major-General  as  the  representative  and 
agent  of  his  own  absolute  authority;  the  church  and 
crown  lands,  the  sequestrated  estates  of  the  Royalists, 
arbitiary  taxes,  and  the  tenth  levied  from  the  incomes 
of  Royalists  brought  in  abundant  supplies  ;  and  the 
Parliament  and  the  Presbytery,  as  well  as  the  monarchy 
and  the  Church,  lay  powerless  under  the  heel  of  the 
fanatical  soldier.  In  the  regulation  of  religious  matters 
he  tolerated  all  the  sects  except  Papists  and  Quakers,  and 
appointed  a  Commission  of  Tryers  to  reject  all  ministers 
presented  to  livings  whom  it  considered  unfit,  and  another 
Commission  of  Ejectors  to  turn  out  the  unfit  who  were 
already  in  possession  of  livings.  "  Episcopalians  "  were 
rigidly  proscribed.  The  payment  of  tithes  was  still 
enforced,  though  of  course  for  the  most  part  they 
were  paid  by  churchmen  for  the  support  of  sectarian 
ministers. 


CHAPTER  XX 


THE  RESTORA  TION 

As  soon  as  it  was  seen  that  the  Restoration  was  resolved 
upon,  the  chief  representatives  of  the  old  Presbyterian 
and  Puritan  party  skilfully  seized  the  opportunity,  by 
sending  some  of  their  number  to  Breda,  to  offer  their 
assurances  of  loyalty  to  Charles,  and  to  seek  to  obtain 
promises  for  the  future.  They  requested  the  king  not 
to  have  the  Prayer  Book  used  in  his  chapel,  and  that 
the  use  of  the  surplice  might  be  discontinued  by  his 
chaplains.  The  king  replied  that  he  would  not  be 
restrained  himself  while  others  had  so  much  indulgence ; 
that  he  had  retained  the  usages  of  the  Church  in  which 
he  was  bred  during  his  exile,  and  that  he  would  not 
abet  irregularity  by  his  own  practice,  nor  discountenance 
its  ancient  and  laudable  customs.  He  referred  to  the 
wisdom  of  Parliament  to  decide  what  indulgence  and 
toleration  might  be  necessary  for  the  repose  of  the 
kingdom. 

No  hasty  measures  were  taken.  An  Act  of  Parliament 
restored  their  estates  to  the  crown  and  the  bishops  ;  the 
ejected  clergy,  the  few  of  them  (about  800)  who  survived, 
were  reinstated  in  their  benefices  ;  the  rest  of  the  men 
in  actual  possession  of  benefices  were  left  undisturbed 
until  some  general  settlement  of  religion  should  be 
arrived  at.    To  rcjnciliate  the  Puritan  party,  the  king 


THE  RESTORATION  191 

nominated  some  of  its  leading  men  as  his  chaplains,  and 
Calamy,  Reynolds,  and  Baxter  were  offered  bishoprics, 
and  three  others  deaneries.  Reynolds  only  accepted  the 
offer,  and  was  made  Bishop  of  Norwich. 

Then,  after  the  precedent  set  by  James,  the  king 
summoned  representatives  of  the  two  parties  to  a  confer- 
ence, which  from  the  place  where  it  assembled  was  called 
the  Savoy  Conference.  The  objections  of  the  Noncon- 
formists and  the  answers  of  the  Church  divines  were 
conducted  in  writing  and  are  on  record.  They  show  that, 
as  at  the  Savoy  Conference,  the  objections  were  of  two 
kinds :  some  were  objections  to  things  in  the  Prayer  Book 
embodying  Church  principles  which  the  Church  divines 
could  not  in  conscience  give  up ;  others  were  small 
criticisms  of  the  wording  of  the  prayers,  &c.,  which  were 
hardly  worthy  of  serious  debate.  Perhaps  one  of  the 
most  interesting  incidents  of  the  Conference  was  that 
Baxter,  with  a  few  weeks'  labour,  composed  a  new 
Prayer  Book,  which,  however,  his  own  friends  declined  to 
adopt.  The  final  result  was  the  adoption  by  the  Bishops 
of  some  of  the  amendments  suggested,  none  of  which 
are  of  sufficient  importance  to  need  mention  here.  The 
work  of  revision  of  the  Prayer  Book  was  committed  to 
the  Convocations  with  the  recommendation  of  these 
amendments.  The  result  was  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  which  has  descended  without  further  alteration, 
(except  as  to  the  "  State  Services  "  and  Calendar)  to  our 
own  day. 

The  re-settlement  of  religion  was  formally  completed 
by  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  May  19,  1662,  which  legalised 
the  Prayer  Book  as  revised  by  the  Convocations.  The 
men  who  had  been  left  all  this  while  undisturbed  in  the 
benefices  of  the  Church  had  the  option  given  them  to 
conform  before  the  next  St.  BartholoL.ew's  day  (August 


192    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


24)  or  to  retire  from  their  usurped  benefices.  The  great 
majority  conformed  and  remained.  The  number  who 
refused  and  were  ejected  is  variously  stated.  Calamy 
states  it  at  2000,  but  only  names  523  ;  Baxter  says  1800  ; 
more  modern  authorities  (Curteis,  Bampton  Lectures, 
1871)  say  that  the  number  was  about  800.  Much  has 
been  said  from  that  day  to  this  of  the  intolerance  and 
cruelty  of  the  ejection  of  the  "  two  thousand  Noncon- 
formist ministers,"  but  it  must  be  considered  who  and 
what  they  were.  The  majority  of  them  had  been  in- 
truded into  the  benefices  of  the  Church  of  England 
when  the  Church  was  proscribed  and  persecuted ;  some 
of  them  were  undoubtedly  men  of  learning  and  piety,  and 
it  is  a  subject  of  regret  that  they  could  not  see  their  way  to 
waive  their  objections  ;  but  some  of  them  must  have  been 
the  Independents  and  Baptists  and  "  illiterate  mechanic 
preachers"  of  whom  the  Presbyterian  Edwardes  com- 
plains; and  while  we  respect  them  for  their  refusal  to 
abandon  their  principles  and  sympathise  with  their  suf- 
ferings for  conscience-sake,  we  must  recognise  that  the 
Church  could  not  allow  them  to  continue  to  minister  at 
her  altars  and  preach  in  her  pulpits  while  they  repudiated 
her  constitution  and  doctrine.  The  complaint  of  the 
orthodox  side  was  that  so  many  were  allowed  to  become 
ministers  of  the  Church  who  were  in  their  hearts  opposed 
to  her  doctrines  and  discipline.  A  comparison  of  the 
ejection  and  persecution  of  the  ortnodox  clergy  in  the 
early  part  of  the  story  with  the  consideration  with 
which  the  intruders  were  treated  at  the  Restoration  is 
one  of  which  Church  people  have  no  reason  to  be 
ashamed. 

The  subsequent  measures  taken  against  the  Noncon- 
formists during  this  reign  were  the  work  of  Parliament 
rather  than  of  the  Church,  and  were  due  to  political  as 


THE  RESTORATION 


193 


well  as  to  religious  motives.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  Royalist  laity  had  suffered  bitterly  from  the 
harshness  of  the  dominant  Puritans,  and  both  Royalists 
and  Presbyterians  from  the  tyranny  of  the  Cromwellian 
Independents;  and  that  all  sober-minded  people  were 
sincerely  shocked  by  the  licentious  fanaticism  which 
had  emerged  from  the  confusion;  and  that  what  the 
nation  earnestly  desired  was  a  cessation  from  religious 
as  from  civil  strife.  It  was  the  "  Cavalier  Parliament " 
which  refused  to  pass  an  Act  recognising  as  lawful  the 
dispensing  power,  which  the  king  conceived  to  be  in- 
herent in  him,  and  so  enabling  him  to  mitigate  the 
rigour  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity.  It  was  the  same  Par- 
liament which  passed  the  Conventicle  Act,  suppressing 
by  a  severe  ascending  scale  of  penalties  unlawful  assem- 
blies for  religious  worship.  Besides  the  objection  to 
tolerate  dissenting  assemblies  for  public  worship,  it  was 
probably  feared  that  such  assemblies  might  be  made 
centres  of  political  as  well  as  religious  association.  In 
contrast,  however,  with  the  Puritan  prohibition  of  the  use 
of  the  Prayer  Book  even  in  private,  families  were  not  now 
forbidden  to  have  worship  in  any  form  they  pleased,  only 
there  must  not  be  more  than  four  strangers  present. 
Another  Parliament  in  the  same  spirit  passed  the  Five 
Mile  Act,  which  forbade  an  ejected  minister  from 
coming  within  that  distance  of  a  borough  town  or  of 
a  place  in  which  he  had  held  the  position  of  a  minister, 
unless  he  would  swear  not  to  attempt  to  alter  the  existing 
settlement  of  Church  and  State. 

In  1672  the  king  risked  his  popularity  by  acting  on 
the  dispensing  power  which  he  claimed,  and  issuing  a 
Declaration  of  Indulgence,  which  suspended  all  penal 
laws  in  matters  ecclesiastical,  thus  giving  complete 
liberty  to  Romanists  as  well  as  Dissenters.  It  was 
5.  r.  N 


194    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


Strongly  suspected  that  the  measure  was  intended  to 
favour  the  former,  for  the  king's  brother  and  heir,  James, 
Duke  of  York,  had  lately  (1671)  avowed  himself  a 
pervert.  The  people  became  alarmed  ;  the  Houses  of 
Parliament  strongly  opposed  the  legality  of  the  declara- 
tion ;  and  the  king  prudently  withdrew  it.  Parliament 
then  passed  the  Test  Act,  which  required  that  no  one 
should  hold  ofifice  who  refused  to  "  take  the  test " — that 
is,  to  make  a  declaration  of  disbelief  in  the  doctrine 
of  transubstantiation  and  to  receive  the  Sacrament 
according  to  the  riles  of  the  Church  of  England.  The 
Duke  of  York  surrendered  the  office  of  Lord  High 
Admiral,  the  Earl  of  Clifford  his  office  of  Lord  High 
Treasurer,  and  every  honest  Romanist  was  deprived  of 
office.  Many  Nonconformists  made  no  difficulty  of 
occasional  conformity,  which  was  held  to  be  a  sufficient 
compliance  with  the  law. 

In  1677  Parliament  passed  an  Act  abolishing  the 
statute  de  heretico  cotnburefido,  and  the  oath  ex  officio, 
which  compelled  men  to  become  their  own  accusers,  and 
an  Act  forbidding  the  profanation  of  the  Lord's  Day. 

The  revival  of  the  English  Reformation  in  the  Stuart 
period  had  raised  up  a  school  of  learned  and  eloquent 
divines,  as  Hammond,  Sanderson,  Jeremy  Taylor,  South, 
Butler,  Pearson  ;  some  of  the  works  of  these  Caroline 
divines  have  been  among  the  most  valued  authorities 
of  Anglican  theology  ever  since.  The  period  also  pro- 
duced a  strain  of  sober  but  exalted  piety  among  both 
clergy  and  laity. 


CHAPTER  XXI 


THE  REVOLUTION 

James  II.  (1668)  came  to  the  throne  with  a  firm  resolve 
to  use  his  power  to  the  utmost  on  behalf  of  his  religion. 
The  lessons  of  the  previous  half  century  seem  to  have 
been  lost  upon  him.  He  seems  to  have  confidently  be- 
lieved that  he  could  carry  out  his  design  by  the  use  and 
abuse  of  the  royal  prerogative  ;  forgetting  that  his  father 
had  tried  that  method  of  government,  and  it  had  landed 
him  in  civil  war ;  that  his  brother  had  experimented  in 
that  direction,  and  found  it  prudent  to  retreat;  and 
failing  to  understand  that  a  generation  which  had  learned 
and  practised  the  principles  of  constitutional  govern- 
ment was  little  likely  to  submit  to  a  return  to  the 
methods  of  arbitrary  power. 

The  two  weapons  on  which  the  king  relied  were  the 
Royal  Supremacy  and  the  Dispensing  Power.  The 
dispensing  power  he  assumed  to  be  inherent  in  the 
crown,  and  to  give  him  the  right,  not  indeed  to  abrogate 
laws,  but  to  dispense  with  their  execution  in  individual 
cases  at  his  discretion.  The  supremacy  gave  him  dis- 
ciplinary jurisdiction  over  the  Church ;  and  his  right  of 
nomination  to  bishoprics  and  other  dignities,  and  the 
dispensing  power  to  excuse  his  nominees  from  all  tests 
and  obligations,  put  great  influence  into  his  hands. 

His  first  step  was  to  maintain  the  small  army  which 
195 


196    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


had  been  raised  to  meet  Monmouth's  rebeUion  and  to 
appoint  Romanists  as  its  officers.  These  appointments 
were  a  violation  of  the  Test  Act,  but  the  king  dis- 
pensed the  officers  from  the  obligation  to  take  the  test. 
Parliament  remonstrated,  and  the  king  prorogued  it,  and 
proceeded  to  obtain  a  legal  recognition  of  the  validity 
of  his  dispensation.  When  the  judges  were  sounded, 
it  appeared  that  four  were  opposed  to  the  legality  of 
the  king's  action ;  but  the  judges  were  in  those  days 
appointed  during  the  king's  pleasure  ;  so  the  four  were 
removed  and  others  put  in  their  places.  Then  a  collusive 
action  was  brought  against  one  of  the  Romanist  officers 
for  refusing  the  test ;  he  pleaded  the  king's  dispensation ; 
and  the  judges  decided  that  such  dispensations  freed 
those  who  received  them  from  any  penalties  imposed 
by  any  laws  whatsoever  (1686).  The  way  was  now 
clear. 

The  king  appointed  an  Ecclesiastical  Commission 
Court,  which  was  a  revival  of  the  Court  of  High  Com- 
mission abolished  among  the  surrenders  of  Charles  I. 
to  constitutional  ideas  in  1641.  At  its  head  he  put 
the  infamous  Jeffries  ;  the  three  bishops  placed  upon 
it  were  Sancroft  the  arclibishop,  and  Spratt  and  Crewe, 
two  men  who  were  willing  to  be  the  king's  tools.  San- 
croft declined  to  act,  and  was  banished  from  the  king's 
court.  The  court  suspended  Compton,  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, for  refusing  to  take  proceedings  against  Sharpe, 
rector  of  St.  Giles,  for  preaching  against  Popery.  The 
king  proceeded  boldly  and  openly  ;  he  appointed  Father 
Petre  and  two  other  Romanists  to  the  Privy  Council ; 
made  a  Romanist  judge ;  sent  an  ambassador  to  Rome, 
and  received  a  Papal  nuncio  and  three  Roman  bishops 
in  partibus ;  set  up  a  Popish  service  at  St.  James's, 
where  a  colony  of  Benedictine  monks  was  placed ; 


THE  REVOLUTION 


197 


Jesuits  at  the  Savoy,  Franciscans  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  and 
Carmelites  in  the  city.  Roman  chapels  were  com- 
menced, processions  were  seen  in  the  streets.  Obadiah 
Walker,  the  Master  of  University  College  and  several 
Fellows  of  other  colleges  turned  Romanists,  and  received 
from  the  king  dispensations  to  retain  their  positions. 
Sclater,  vicar  of  Putney,  turned  Romanist,  and  received 
a  dispensation  to  retain  his  living.  The  king  imposed  a 
Popish  principal  at  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  who  turned 
one  of  the  college  rooms  into  a  chapel  and  set  up  the 
mass.  He  turned  out  the  Fellows  of  Magdalen  because 
they  refused  to  elect  his  Popish  nominee,  and  had  his 
own  man  introduced  by  force.  He  ordered  the  Uni- 
versity of  Cambridge  to  confer  the  M.A.  degree  upon 
a  Benedictine  monk  without  exacting  the  oaths,  and 
deprived  the  Vice-Chancellor  for  non-compliance.  He 
packed  the  corporations,  so  as  to  secure  a  House  of 
Commons  which  would  be  subservient  to  him,  and  pro- 
posed to  swamp  the  opposition  in  the  Lords  by  new 
creations. 

At  length,  April  4,  1687,  he  issued  a  Declaration 
of  Liberty  of  Conscience,  suspending  all  laws  against 
Romanists  and  Dissenters  alike,  and  giving  them  per- 
mission to  worship  publicly.  The  inclusion  of  Dis- 
senters was  intended  to  secure  their  support.  In  1688 
another  Declaration  of  Indulgence  was  issued,  which  the 
king  commanded  to  be  read  in  all  the  churches.  The 
bishops  who  happened  to  be  in  London  met  at  Lambeth 
and  drew  up  a  petition  in  which  they  begged  to  be 
excused  from  publication  of  the  Declaration,  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  founded  on  a  dispensing  power 
which  had  often  been  declared  illegal  in  Parliament, 
and  that  they  could  not  in  prudence,  honour,  or  con- 
science so  far  make  themselves  parties  to  it  as  the 


198    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

solemn  publication  of  it  in  time  of  divine  service  would 
amount  to. 

The  seven  bishops  who  thus  stood  in  the  gap  were 
W.  Bancroft,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  W.  Lloyd,  Bishop 
of  St.  Asaph,  F.  Turner,  Bishop  of  Ely,  J.  Lake,  Bishop 
of  Chichester,  T.  Kenn,  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells, 
T.  White,  Bishop  of  Peterborough,  and  J.  Trelawney, 
Bishop  of  Bristol. 

The  bishops  sought  an  audience  and  presented  their 
petition.  The  king  read  it  with  surprise.  "  These  are 
strange  words,"  he  said  ;  "  I  did  not  expect  this  from  you. 
This  is  a  standard  of  rebellion."  Then,  in  reply  to  their 
protestations  of  loyalty,  "  God  has  given  me  this  dis- 
pensing power,  and  I  will  maintain  it.  I  tell  you  there 
are  7000  men,  and  of  the  Church  of  England  too,  that 
have  not  bowed  the  knee  to  Baal."  No  doubt  the  time- 
serving compliance  of  three  or  four  prelates  might  en- 
courage the  king  to  hope  for  the  yielding  of  the  rest; 
but  when  Bishop  Spratt  began  to  read  the  declaration 
on  the  appointed  Sunday  in  Westminster  Abbey,  the 
congregation  rose  in  a  body  and  streamed  out  of  the 
building.  Only  about  200  of  the  clergy  out  of  about 
9000  read  it ;  the  rest  abided  the  result  of  their  refusal. 

The  king  was  right  in  regarding  the  action  of  the 
bishops  as  a  standard  of  resistance,  and  he  accepted  the 
battle  on  this  point,  and  the  whole  nation  looked  on 
with  interest.  The  bishops  were  summoned  before  the 
Council  on  a  charge  of  misdemeanour  and  sedition, 
and,  on  their  declining  to  give  bail,  as  inconsistent 
with  their  privilege  as  peers  of  Parliament,  were  com- 
mitted to  the  Tower.  The  people  understood  the  im- 
portance of  the  occasion.  Crowds  assembled  to  witness 
their  embarkation  on  the  barge  which  was  to  convey 
them  to  the  Tower,  some  in  tears,  some  kneeling  to 


THll  REVOLUTION 


199 


ask  their  blessing,  many  crying  "  God  save  the  bishops," 
"  God  save  the  Church.  '  On  their  arrival  at  the  Tower, 
their  reception  was  still  more  striking ;  the  men  on 
guard,  and  even  some  of  the  officers,  received  them 
kneeling  and  asked  their  blessing. 

On  their  trial  at  Westminster  Hall,  vast  crowds  filled 
the  building  and  the  neighbouring  spaces.  The  sentence 
of  acquittal  was  received  with  a  tremendous  burst  of 
applause  in  the  hall,  which  was  taken  up  outside,  and 
soon  announced  the  news  to  the  whole  capital,  and  the 
news  was  conveyed  by  mounted  messengers  to  all  parts 
of  the  kingdom.  The  news  reached  Hounslow  while 
James  was  reviewing  the  army  encamped  there,  on 
which  he  was  relying  to  support  him  in  the  last  resort ; 
they  too  broke  into  joyful  shouts.  James  asked  "  what 
it  meant."  Nothing,  he  was  told,  "  only  the  soldiers  are 
glad  that  the  bishops  are  acquitted."  "So  much  the 
worse  for  them,"  threatened  the  king. 

But  by  this  time  the  spirit  of  the  whole  nation  had 
been  roused  against  the  king's  arbitrary  acts,  which 
clearly  pointed  to  a  forcible  re-establishment  of  the 
Popish  tyranny.  The  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes 
in  1685,  and  the  influx  of  French  Huguenots  fleeing  from 
the  cruel  persecution  which  followed,  no  doubt  helped 
to  alarm  the  people  as  to  the  results  of  a  restoration 
of  the  Papal  power,  backed  by  the  tyranny  of  a  king 
like  James.  On  the  day  of  the  acquittal  of  the  seven 
bishops,  a  deputation  of  seven  men  of  rank  and  political 
eminence,  carrying  with  them  the  invitation  of  many 
others,  formally  invited  William,  Prince  of  Orange,  who 
had  married  Mary,  the  king's  eldest  daughter,  to  come 
over  with  an  armed  force  to  defend  the  liberties  of 
England,  with  the  offer  of  the  crown.  James  found 
himself  deserted  by  his  subjects  and  fled.  A  Convention 


20O    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


Parliament  declared  the  throne  vacant,  and  offered  the 
crown  to  William  and  Mary  as  joint  sovereigns. 

The  Nonjurors. — The  mere  fact  of  the  accession  of 
William  and  Mary  to  the  throne  by  the  vote  of  the 
Convention  Parliament  was  the  occasion  of  an  important 
episode  in  the  history  of  the  Church.  It  was  convenient 
to  accept  the  king's  flight  from  the  kingdom  as  a 
practical  abdication,  but  in  fact  he  had  not  formally 
abdicated ;  on  the  contrary,  he  shortly  appeared  at  the 
head  of  an  army  in  Ireland,  to  contest  what  he  regarded 
as  the  usurpation  of  the  Prince  of  Orange. 

When  the  holders  of  all  offices  in  the  kingdom  were 
called  upon  to  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  new 
sovereigns,  it  appeared  that  some  of  the  bishops  and 
clergy  had  conscientious  scruples ;  they  were  willing  to 
accept  William  and  Mary  as  de  facto  sovereigns,  but 
they  scrupled  to  take  oaths  of  allegiance  to  them  while 
James  still  claimed  adhejence  to  the  oath  which  they 
had  previously  sworn  to  him,  and  a  large  number  of 
the  laity  sympathised  with  them.  The  bishops  who 
entertained  this  scruple  were  for  the  most  part  the  very 
same  whose  resistance  to  James's  declaration  of  in- 
dulgence had  raised  the  standard  of  resistance  to  the 
abuse  of  the  royal  prerogative,  so  that  their  action  stood 
above  suspicion  of  any  other  than  the  highest  motives 
and  secured  for  them  the  general  sympathy. 

The  king  offered  a  compromise,  viz.,  to  excuse  the 
clergy  from  the  oath  on  condition  that  they  would 
assent  to  the  repeal  of  the  tests  of  churchmanship 
required  from  all  who  held  civil  office.  It  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  William  was  bred  a  Presbyterian  and 
was  from  conviction  a  latitudinarian,  and  that  he  was 
naturally  anxious  for  a  large  measure  of  comprehension. 
The  compromise  was  not  generally  acceptable.  The 


THE  REVOLUTION 


201 


Church  and  nation  as  a  whole  were  not  yet  prepared 
to  abandon  the  principle  that  whatever  toleration  might 
be  extended  to  Dissenters,  national  interests  required 
that  the  holders  of  any  office  should  be  adherents  of 
the  existing  unity  in  Church  and  State.  The  court  party 
had  sufificient  power  to  procure  the  passing  of  an  Act  of 
Parliament  enacting  that  all  clergymen  who  refused  the 
oath  of  allegiance  should  be  deprived.  Under  this  Act 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  six  other  bishops 
were  ejected,  and  about  400  clergymen,  among  whom 
were  a  remarkable  number  of  men  eminent  for  learning 
and  piety  ;  the  names  of  some  of  them,  as  Hicks,  Collier, 
Dodwell,  Kettlewell,  Sherlock,  are  still  well  known  as 
ecclesiastical  authors  of  repute.  It  was  a  critical 
moment.  Great  numbers  both  of  the  clergy  and  laity 
sympathised  with  the  Nonjurors,  and  had  any  attempt 
been  made  to  force  on  the  Church  such  changes  in 
constitution  and  doctrine  as  those  projected  in  the  Bill 
of  Comprehension  and  for  the  Repeal  of  Tests,  a  very 
serious  disruption  of  the  Church  might  have  resulted. 
But  the  advisers  of  William  were  prudent  men;  they 
recognised  that  no  real  comprehension  and  pacification 
could  be  obtained  by  measures  which,  while  they  ad- 
mitted a  few  Dissenters,  excluded  a  great  body  of  church- 
men. On  the  other  hand,  the  Nonjurors,  with  praise- 
worthy moderation,  were  content  to  suffer  in  silence 
and  patience  the  hardships  which  their  obedience  to 
conscience  had  brought  upon  them.  The  larger  and 
better  part  of  them  made  no  attempt  to  create  a  schism, 
and  they  said  nothing  against  their  brethren  who  had 
not  scrupled  to  take  the  oath.  Since  their  expulsion 
was  an  act  of  the  secular  power,  and  they  had  not  been 
canonically  deprived,  some  conscientious  men  scrupled 
to  take  their  ofifices  as  not  vacant;  but  they  said  no 


202    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


bitter  things  against  those  who  did  take  them,  and  they 
encouraged  their  sympathisers  to  accept  things  as  they 
stood.  Some  did  not  fall  in  with  these  moderate  counsels, 
and  an  attempt  was  made  to  keep  up  a  Nonjuring  suc- 
cession of  bishops  and  priests ;  but,  discountenanced  by 
the  rest,  it  gradually  died  of  neglect. 

The  principal  result  of  the  secession  of  the  Non- 
jurors was  that  it  deprived  the  Church  of  the  ablest 
representatives  of  the  conservative  Reformation  just 
at  the  time  when  they  were  needed  to  balance  a  new 
"school  of  thought"  which  had  been  growing  up  for 
some  time  past  and  which  was  soon  to  acquire,  under  the 
patronage  of  the  crown,  an  influence  disproportioned  to 
its  numbers.  It  was  soon  known  by  the  name  of  the 
Low  Church  party.  Its  doctrines  had  been  published 
by  Hales  and  Chillingworth  in  the  time  of  Charles  I. ; 
soon  after  the  Restoration  it  began  to  gain  numerous 
adherents ;  and  with  the  Revolution  it  came  into  power. 
The  ejection  of  the  archbishop  and  six  other  bishops 
left  vacancies  which  William  filled  up  with  men  of  the 
Low  Church — some  of  them  were  men  of  learning, 
ability,  and  piety,  as  Tillotson,  Burnet,  Stillingfleet, 
Tenison — with  the  result  that  the  bench  of  bishops  as 
a  whole  was  no  longer  in  harmony  with  the  great  body 
of  the  clergy  or  with  the  national  religious  feeling. 
The  new  school  was  averse  from  enthusiasm  and  ex- 
tremes, and  was  content  to  accept  things  as  they  stood. 
It  accepted  the  Church  as  the  existing  organisation  of 
religion  in  England,  and  not  contrary  in  any  way  to  the 
Word  of  God,  and  therefore  having  a  claim  upon  the 
adhesion  of  all  reasonable  men.  But  while  preferring 
the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Church,  it  was  tolerant 
of  dissent  in  every  orthodox  form,  and  not  averse  from 
making  considerable  concessions  to  Dissenters,  if  by  so 


THE  REVOLUTION 


doing  it  could  attain  the  desirable  end  of  inducing  them 
to  abandon  their  separatist  organisations.  This  spirit 
of  tolerance  led  in  many  cases  to  latitudinarianisra, 
and  in  some  leaned  towards  Socinianism. 

The  immediate  practical  result  of  the  new  appoint- 
ments to  the  episcopate  was  that  it  put  the  bench  of 
bishops  in  antagonism  with  both  the  Lower  House  of 
Convocation  and  with  Parliament.  When  William 
summoned  his  first  Parliament,  he  omitted  to  summon 
Convocation  at  the  same  time,  which  was  a  breach  of 
the  constitution.  On  the  petition  of  Parliament  he 
was  obliged  to  repair  the  omission ;  and  Convocation, 
especially  the  Lower  House,  took  a  large  part  in  the 
subsequent  business.  At  the  same  time  that  the  king 
summoned  the  Convocation  a  Comprehension  Bill  was 
introduced  into  Parliament  which  had  not  received  any 
Convocational  assent.  It  proposed  to  excuse  ministers 
from  signing  the  Thirty-nine  Articles ;  to  recognise 
Presbyterian  ordination ;  to  make  certain  ceremonies 
optional,  as  the  use  of  the  surplice,  the  cross  in  baptism, 
sponsors,  kneeling  at  the  reception  of  the  Communion ; 
and  it  proposed  to  petition  the  crown  for  the  revision 
of  the  liturgy  and  canons,  and  the  reform  of  the 
ecclesiastical  courts.  It  was  the  last  great  endeavour 
to  revolutionise  the  Church  of  England  in  accordance 
with  the  personal  predilections  of  the  sovereign,  and 
happily  it  was  unsuccessful. 

The  proposals  excited  great  and  almost  universal 
alarm  among  Church  people.  Macaulay  estimates  that 
nine-tenths  of  the  clergy  were  opposed  to  them,  and  that 
probably  represents  nine-tenths  of  the  people.  The 
public  alarm  was  justified  and  intensified  by  the  fact 
that  in  Scotland,  when  the  bishops  scrupled  to  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance,  the  mob  had  been  allowed  to  "rabble" 


204    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


the  episcopal  clergy  without  interference  on  the  part  of 
the  authorities;  the  Scottish  Parliament  had  been  allowed 
to  abolish  Episcopacy,  and  the  Presbyterian  system  had 
been  re-establisiied,  with  the  king's  consent.  The  Eng- 
lish people  very  naturally  began  to  fear  that  in  escaping 
the  Scylla  of  James  and  Popery,  they  had  run  into 
the  Charybdis  of  William  and  latitudinarian  Presbytery. 
The  national  feeling  was  so  strong  that  the  king  found  it 
prudent  to  abandon  his  design. 

The  utmost  which  he  was  able  to  obtain  from  Parlia- 
ment was  the  Toleration  Act  (1689,  i  Will,  and  Mary, 
"c.  18),  which  permitted  ministers  of  the  three  chief  dis- 
senting bodies — Presbyterian,  Independent,  and  Baptist 
■ — who  should  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  subscribe 
the  thirty-six  doctrinal  articles  out  of  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles  of  the  Church  of  England,  to  conduct  public 
worship  for  their  adherents  without  interference  or 
penalties,  and  protected  their  worship  from  molestation. 
These  "Orthodox  Dissenters"  were  not  only  tolerated, 
but  in  a  measure  established  ;  the  magistrates  registered 
and  protected  their  places  of  worship,  the  king  set  aside 
a  considerable  annual  sum — the  Regium  Donum — in 
stipends  for  them,  and  they  were  permitted  to  approach 
the  crown  by  petition  as  a  recognised  body.  In  1691 
an  attempt  was  made  to  unite  the  Presbyterians  and 
Independents,  but  it  came  to  nothing,  and  the  latter 
body  rapidly  declined  into  Unitarianism. 

The  policy  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  (1702  a.d.) 
was  to  some  extent  a  reaction  against  the  ecclesiastical 
as  well  as  political  policy  of  the  preceding  reign.  The 
latitudinarian  policy  of  William,  no  longer  supported  by 
the  court,  was  at  a  disadvantage  in  face  of  the  opposite 
views  of  the  great  body  of  the  clergy  and  the  nation. 
The  trial  of  Dr.  Sacheverell  (17 10)  afforded  the  popular 


THE  REVOLUTION 


205 


feeling  an  opportunity  of  manifesting  itself.  He  was 
rector  of  St  Saviour's,  Southwark,  a  man  of  no  great 
learning  or  cliaracter,  but  with  a  striking  presence,  good 
delivery,  and  a  fanatical  preacher  of  the  popular  doc- 
trines. In  a  sermon  at  St.  Paul's  before  the  Mayor  and 
Corporation,  he  preached  violently  in  favour  of  non- 
resistance,  against  the  principle  of  toleration,  declared 
the  Church  in  danger,  and  abused  Godolphin,  the  chief 
minister  of  the  Whig  cabinet.  The  ministry  impeached 
him  and  brought  him  to  trial.  The  event  greatly  moved 
the  popular  mind.  When  the  queen  passed  through  the 
streets,  shouts  were  raised,  "God  bless  your  majesty 
and  the  Church.  We  hope  your  majesty  is  for  Dr. 
Sacheverell."  There  were  riotous  attacks  upon  the 
Dissenters'  chapels,  some  of  which  were  burnt.  The 
mild  sentence  of  the  House  of  Lords,  that  Sacheverell's 
sermon  should  be  burnt,  and  that  he  should  be  silenced 
for  three  years,  was  regarded  as  a  triumph,  and  the  man 
was  regarded  as  a  popular  hero.  The  display  of  national 
feeling  hastened  the  fall  of  the  Whig  ministry ;  the  Tory 
party  came  into  office,  and  retained  its  ascendency  during 
the  remainder  of  the  queen's  reign. 

This  reaction  showed  itself  in  the  Occasional  Con- 
formity Act  of  1 7 II.  It  was  regarded  as  a  religious 
scandal,  as  well  as  a  political  grievance,  that  Dissenters 
should  come  to  Holy  Communion  in  church  once  a  year 
merely  to  qualify  themselves  to  hold  municipal  and  other 
offices,  and  the  Act  put  the  test  the  other  way  ;  instead 
of  taking  such  occasional  conformity  as  an  evidence  of 
churchmanship,  it  enacted  that  those  who  had  attended 
Dissenting  public  worship  within  the  previous  year  should 
be  reckoned  Nonconformists.  This  was  followed  up  by 
the  Schism  Act  of  17 14,  which  was  directed  against  the 
seminaries  for  training  Dissenting  ministers,  and  against 


2o6    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

some  private  schools  conducted  by  eminent  Dissenters 
with  such  success  that  the  sons  of  some  of  the  nobility 
and  gentry  were  sent  to  them  for  education.  The  Act 
prohibited  Nonconformists  from  keeping,  or  even  being 
ushers  in,  schools. 

The  queen  showed  her  good-will  to  the  Church  in 
a  practical  way  by  restoring  to  it  the  first-fruits  and 
tenths  which  Henry  VIII.  had  seized,  which  Mary  had 
restored,  which  Elizabeth  had  resumed.  They  were 
wisely  settled  in  a  trust  fund,  under  the  title  of  Queen 
Anne's  Bounty,  for  the  augmentation  of  poor  livings, 
which  still  continues  its  useful  work. 


CHAPTER  XXII 


THE  HANOVERIAN  PERIOD 

With  the  accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover  a  new  era 
begins.  The  old  High  Church  party  lived  on  especially 
among  the  country  clergy  and  gentry,  and  with  it  an 
inclination  to  the  cause  of  the  Stuart  dynasty ;  but  the 
mass  of  the  people  were  quite  content  to  Hve  in  peace 
under  the  new  regime.  The  Dissenters  were  conciliated 
by  the  repeal  (1719)  of  the  Occasional  Conformity  Act 
and  the  Schism  Act,  but  the  Test  Act  was  retained.  In 
religion  men's  thoughts  were  turning  into  new  channels. 
The  questions  which  were  coming  to  the  front  con- 
cerned the  very  foundations  of  revealed  religion.  The 
Bangorian  controversy,  which  raged  about  the  Erastian, 
latitudinarian,  and  perhaps  Socinian  views  ably  put 
forward  and  defended  by  Hoadley,  Bishop  of  Bangor 
(and  successively  of  Hereford,  SaHsbury,  and  Winchester) 
marked  the  change.  Then  there  sprung  up  a  school  of 
Deistical  writers,  who  challenged  the  existence  of  any 
revelation.  The  chief  of  these  were  Shaftesbury  in  his 
"  Characteristics  ; "  Woolston  "  On  the  Miracles;"  Toland, 
"Christianity  not  Mysterious;"  Collins,  "On  Free-Thinlc- 
ing ; "  Tindal,  "  Christianity  as  Old  as  Creation."  These 
called  forth  able  replies,  some  of  which  have  obtained 
the  position  of  theological   classics,   as  Warburton's 

"  Divine  Legation  of  Moses  ; "  Conybeare's  "  Defence  of 
207 


2o8    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


"Revealed  Religion,"  and  Butler's  "Analogy."  The 
Deists  were  worsted  in  the  discussion,  and  Christianity 
came  out  of  the  contest  strengthened  by  the  apologies 
which  had  been  called  forth  on  its  behalf. 

Then  the  Socinian  views  which  had  been  simmering 
in  men's  minds  found  open  expression  in  the  Arianism 
of  the  works  of  Whiston  and  Clarke,  and  among 
Dissenters  in  those  of  Lardner  and  Priestley.  Bishop 
Bull  had  already  published  his  great  work,  Defensio  pro 
Sytnbolo  Niceno,  against  the  foreign  Socinians;  the  con- 
troversy was  chiefly  carried  on  by  Waterland,  Jones  of 
Nayland,  and  Bishop  Horsley,  who  did  much  to  arrest 
the  spread  of  error  and  to  establisli  the  orthodox  faith 
in  the  public  mind. 

After  so  long  a  period  of  religious  strife  and  contro- 
versy there  followed  a  period  of  sluggish  inactivity. 
There  were  admirable  bishops,  but  the  idea  of  the 
episcopal  life  was  one  of  dignified  representation, 
learned  leisure,  and  mild  rule  of  the  "  inferior 
clergy."  In  the  rural  districts  the  rectors  were  genial 
and  charitable,  half  country  squire  and  half  parson; 
many  parishes  had  no  resident  rector  or  vicar,  and  were 
served  by  stipendiary  curates,  and  the  religious  life 
of  the  people  was  at  a  low  ebb.  In  the  towns  the 
principal  clergy  were  highly  respected,  and  the  better 
classes  of  the  citizens  were  a  church-going  people ; 
but  it  was  hardly  considered  as  part  of  their  duty  to 
create  new  machinery  for  the  improvement  of  the  social 
condition  of  the  people,  or  to  engage  in  systematic 
mission-work  among  the  neglectors  of  religion.  The 
Dissenting  bodies  were  in  much  the  same  condition. 
"The  Nonconformist  ministers,  comfortably  established 
among  their  flocks,  and  enjoying  their  modest  tem- 
poralities, shared  the  spiritual  ease  of  churchmen " 


THE  HANOVERIAN  PERIOD  209 


(Macaulay).  This  was  the  state  of  things  when  a 
wave  of  religious  zeal  swept  over  the  land,  like  that 
which  gave  birth  to  the  Franciscan  and  Dominican 
orders  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  began  a  new  era, 
which  has  passed  through  various  phases,  and  is  still  in 
full  flood. 

If  the  birth  of  the  Evangelical  School  may  be  attri- 
buted to  any  one  man,  it  may  be  assigned  to  William 
Law,  the  author  of  "  A  Serious  Call  to  a  Devout  Life  "  and 
"  Christian  Perfection."  These  works  had  a  great  effect 
upon  the  mind  of  Henry  Venn,  who  may  be  regarded 
as  one  of  the  earliest,  and  perhaps  the  most  influential, 
of  the  Evangelical  school,  and  also  on  that  of  John 
Wesley,  the  organiser  of  a  separate  branch  of  the 
revival  which  must  be  dealt  with  in  a  distinct  para- 
graph. With  Venn  may  be  enumerated  as  early  Evan- 
gelicals Samuel  Walker  of  Truro,  James  Hervey,  the 
author  of  the  "  Meditations  in  a  Country  Churchyard," 
and  William  Talbot  of  Reading.  Later  names  of 
eminence  are  William  Romaine,  Joseph  and  Isaac 
Milner,  John  Newton,  the  poet  Cooper,  Richard  Cecil, 
Thomas  Scott  the  commentator,  Leigh  Richmond, 
Henry  Martyn  the  missionary,  Charles  Simeon,  John 
Thornton,  the  chief  of  the  Clapham  school,  and  William 
Wilberforce. 

The  revival  was  rather  pietistic  than  doctrinal,  but  it 
did  specially  exalt  those  doctrines  which  immediately 
touch  the  relations  between  the  individual  soul  and  God. 
Its  great  merits  were  a  profound  veneration  for  the 
Bible,  faith  in  the  atonement,  and  an  ardent  personal 
sense  of  religion.  Its  defects  lay  in  its  individualism,  1 
its  undervaluing  of  creeds,  sacraments,  worship,  unity, 
and  all  which  relates  to  Christ's  church  system  of  bring- 
ing religion  to  bear  upon  universal  mankind. 


2IO    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


The  Wesleyan  movement  began  within  the  Church, 
on  High  Church  lines  doctrinally,  in  the  form  of  Societies 
— Guilds  as  we  should  now  call  them — for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  personal  piety.  At  first  they  were  members  of 
the  Church  who  were  grouped  into  these  local  societies, 
but  in  a  short  time  the  popularity  of  the  movement 
attracted  people  from  outside  the  Church  into  the 
Wesleyan  Societies,  who  were  Wesleyans  first  and 
churchmen  afterwards.  With  all  its  admitted  excel- 
lence, the  movement  tended  from  the  beginning  in  the 
direction  of  the  formation  of  a  separate  religious  organi- 
sation. The  steps  of  this  separation  were  these :  the 
opening  of  the  Foundry  House  in  London  and  tlie 
building  of  the  Preaching  House  at  Bristol,  both  in 
1739,  were  the  beginning  of  the  gathering  of  separate 
congregations.  The  permission,  unwillingly  given,  by 
John  Wesley  to  Maxwell,  the  first  lay  preacher,  to  preach 
in  public  in  1741  was  the  beginning  of  an  unauthorised 
ministry.  In  1788  the  lay  preachers  were  allowed  to 
read  the  Prayer  Book  on  Sunday  mornings  in  their 
meeting-houses.  In  the  very  year  of  John  Wesley's 
death  (1790)  he  formally  put  forth  the  statement 
in  his  magazine,  "I  hold  all  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church  of  England.  I  love  her  history,  I  approve 
her  plan  of  discipline,  and  only  wish  it  could  be 
put  in  execution."  Wesley  would  have  kept  his  fol- 
lowers as  an  order  within  the  Church,  but  for  a  long 
time  previous  to  his  death  it  was  only  his  personal 
influence  which  had  kept  back  the  tendency  of  his 
followers  to  break  off  from  the  Church  and  exercise 
their  entire  independence  as  a  separate  organisation. 
In  1795  the  governing  body  gave  permission  to  the 
preachers  to  assume  all  the  functions  of  the  priest- 
hood, to  baptize,  conduct  public  service,  administer 


THE  HANOVERIAN  PERIOD  211 


"the  Lord's  Supper,"  and  bury,  and  the  schism  was 
complete. 

The  same  revival  of  religion  which  produced  the 
Evangelical  school  and  the  VVesleyan  society  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Church  roused  the  Dissenters  into  activity. 
Previously  they  were  not  numerous,  about  one  to  twenty 
of  the  population,!  and  they  shared  the  general  religious 
apathy.  But  three  causes  tended  to  their  rapid  increase  : 
first,  the  rapid  increase  of  the  population  and  its  sudden 
accumulation  in  the  towns  and  manufacturing  districts, 
and  the  failure  of  the  Church  to  make  sufficient  provision 
for  the  spiritual  wants  thus  suddenly  created.  Secondly, 
the  facility  with  which  Dissenters  could  erect  cheap  build- 
ings and  provide  ministers  for  them.  Thirdly,  the  fact 
that  the  whole  drift  of  Evangelical  teaching  encouraged 
the  people  to  see  nothing  but  minor  and  very  unimpor- 
tant differences  between  the  Church  and  the  sects.  It 
must  be  said  in  excuse  for  the  Church  of  the  time,  that 
a  great  and  ancient  organisation  is  always  inevitably 
cautious  and  slow  in  adapting  itself  to  new  circum- 
stances ;  that,  with  its  Convocation  silenced  for  a  century 
past,  the  Church  had  lost  the  machinery  and  the  habit  of 
united  action ;  that  tlie  erection  of  a  new  church  required 
a  special  Act  of  Parliament ;  and  that  it  required  years 
of  education  for  its  candidates  for  holy  orders.  The  re- 
sult was  a  rapid  increase  in  the  number  of  Dissenters. 
In  the  absence  of  a  religious  census  it  is  impossible  to 
give  authoritative  statistics,  but  from  the  latest  sources 
of  information  it  is  gathered  that  the  Wesleyans  now 
number  not  more  than  1,356,906  adherents  in  Great 

1  Sherlock  in  his  "Test  Act  Vindicated"  calculates  that  in  1676 
Dissenters,  including  Romanists,  were  to  the  Church  people  in  the 
proportion  of  I  to  20,  and  that  they  had  not  increased  during  the  first 
twenty-five  years  of  the  next  century. 


212    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


Britain;  the  Independents  about  1,250,000;  the  Bap- 
tists less  than  1,000,000;  Romanists  probably  less  than 
2,000,000;  the  minor  sects  it  is  difficult  to  estimate. 
The  proportion  of  the  people  who  seek  their  religious 
ministrations  at  the  hands  of  the  Church  is  probably 
about  75  per  cent,  of  the  population  ;  the  population  of 
England  and  Wales  by  the  census  of  189 1  was  29 
millions,  and  75  per  cent,  of  that  is  2  if  millions. 

With  their  increase  in  numbers  and  wealth  the  Dis- 
senters naturally  acquired  political  influence,  and  used  it 
to  free  themselves  from  their  legal  disabilities.  In  1774 
an  Act  of  Parliament  relieved  their  ministers  and  school- 
masters from  the  subscription  to  the  Articles  of  Religion 
required  by  the  Toleration  Act.  In  1828  the  repeal  of 
the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  opened  Parliament  and 
all  civil  offices  to  them.  In  1829,  after  long  and  pro- 
found agitation,  the  Catholic  Relief  Act  extended  the 
same  liberty  to  Romanist  dissenters.  In  1836  the 
Dissenters'  Marriage  Act  licensed  Dissenting  meeting- 
houses for  the  celebration  of  baptisms,  marriages  and 
funerals ;  the  Act  3  and  4  Will.  IV.  c.  30  relieved  their 
meeting-houses  from  local  taxation.  In  1858  the  repeal 
of  the  Jewish  disabilities  admitted  Jews  to  Parliament. 

Then  began  a  series  of  legislative  assaults  upon  the 
Church  which  the  political  activity  of  the  assailants  and 
the  pseudo-liberality  and  lethargy  of  Church  people 
rendered  successful.  In  1869  an  Act  of  Parliament 
gave  them  a  share  in  the  government  of  the  Church's 
grammar-schools.  In  1870  the  Act  34  Vict.  c.  26  gave 
them  admission  to  the  Church's  colleges,  and  in  1882 
another  Act  gave  them  a  share  in  their  emoluments 
and  government ;  the  colleges  at  the  Universities  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  founded  to  keep  their  students 
under  the  religious  and  moral  discipline  of  the  Church, 


THE  HANOVERIAN  PERIOD  213 


were  thrown  open  to  Dissenters,  and  the  Church  began 
at  once  to  found  new  colleges  for  herself.  In  1880  an 
Act  gave  Dissenting  ministers  the  power  of  conducting 
their  funeral  services  in  the  churchyards. 

The  High  Church  Revival. — In  the  earlier  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century  there  were  still  a  few  clergymen  who 
had  inherited  the  learning  and  the  principles  of  the 
Caroline  divines.  The  revival  of  the  school  of  thought 
as  one  of  the  modern  parties  in  the  Church  began  in 
Oxford  about  1825.  It  was  a  reaction  against  the 
defects  of  the  Evangelical  school,  and  its  aim,  as  in  the 
earlier  phase  of  the  sixteenth-century  Reformation,  was 
to  bring  the  Church  of  England  back  to  the  primitive 
standards  of  faith  and  practice.  The  common  room  of 
Oriel  College,  Oxford,  was  the  centre  of  the  movement, 
and  Newman,  Pusey,  Keble,  Froude,  Isaac  Williams, 
Palmer,  Wilberforce,-  were  among  its  leaders.  Tiieir 
design  of  forming  a  Society  having  been  discouraged 
by  those  in  authority,  it  was  chiefly  by  their  writings 
that  their  principles  were  disseminated.  Among  those 
writings  the  "  Tracts  for  the  Times "  were  the  most 
notorious ;  the  pubUcation  of  translations  of  the  Fathers 
and  of  the  works  of  the  English  theologians  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  had  a  still  greater  influence.  At 
the  same  time  began  a  revived  interest  in  and  admira- 
tion of  mediaeval  art,  and  this  led  to  the  restoration 
of  churches  and  the  improvement  of  services  ;  while  the 
"  Christian  Year "  of  Keble,  and  collections  of  hymns, 
lent  the  aid  of  poetry  to  the  popularising  of  the  revival. 
The  movement  was  at  first  misunderstood ;  it  was  feared 
that  it  was  leading  people  back  towards  Rome ;  authori- 
ties looked  disapprovingly  upon  it,  partisans  prosecuted 
it,  the  mob  rabbled  its  clergy  and  services.  The  new 
leaven,  however,  gradually  wrought,  and  has  had  a  great 


214    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


effect  upon  the  popular  religion  of  the  latter  part  of 
the  century.  In  so  great  a  movement  there  were  sure  to 
be  extremes,  but  the  general  result  has  been  to  extend 
and  consolidate  the  work  of  the  Evangelical  revival, 
and  to  add  to  its  piety  and  earnestness  the  theologi- 
cal learning  and  church  organisation  in  which  it  was 
defective. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE  MODERN  PERIOD 

The  revival  of  the  "High  Church"  school  of  thought, 
in  the  second  quarter  of  the  present  century,  seems  to 
have  inspired  the  Court  of  Rome  with  the  hope  that  the 
time  had  come  for  recovering  England  to  the  Roman 
obedience,  in  forgetfulness  perhaps  of  the  fact  that  it  was 
that  school  of  thought  which  broke  with  the  See  of  Rome  in 
the  time  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  which  raised  the  standard 
of  resistance  to  the  attempt  of  James  II.  to  bring  the 
Church  of  England  back  into  the  old  bondage. 

In  1850  the  Pope  gave  a  new  organisation  to  the  Papal 
sect  in  England  by  the  creation  of  a  new  hierarchy  in  the 
country,  consisting  of  an  archbishop,  taking  his  title  from 
Westminster,  and  twelve  other  bishops,  taking  their  titles 
from  other  great  towns. 

This  Papal  Aggression  was  the  outward  advertisement 
of  a  new  attack  upon  the  Church  of  England.  Rome 
gave  itself  in  earnest  to  the  task  which  it  had  undertaken. 
Money  was  supplied  in  profusion  for  the  erection  of 
beautiful  churches  and  the  maintenance  of  attractive 
services ;  convents  of  men  and  women  were  founded  in 
various  places ;  charitable  institutions  presented  the  re- 
ligion in  its  most  persuasive  character ;  social  influences 
were  brought  to  bear  upon  individuals  ;  in  short,  all  that 
statesmanlike  plan,  skilful  intrigue,  Jesuitical  astuteness, 
215 


2i6    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


and  money,  all  that  Christian  earnestness,  zeal,  and  self- 
devotion  ably  directed  could  do  was  done,  in  the  hope 
of  gaining  a  great  body  of  converts,  and  thus  of  social 
influence  and  political  power,  and  so  of  ultimately  win- 
ning back  England  to  the  Roman  obedience.  In  the 
early  days  of  the  movement  it  had  a  considerable  suc- 
cess. A  number  of  clergymen,  some  of  them  men  of 
eminence  for  piety  and  learning,  some  of  them  dignitaries 
of  the  Church,  were  won  over,  and  a  rather  large  number  of 
converts  of  the  higher  classes,  and  a  certain  number  out 
of  the  poorer  classes,  who,  having  no  religion,  were  natur- 
ally attracted  by  bright  services  and  kindly  ministrations ; 
but  the  result  on  the  whole  has  been  a  great  disappoint- 
ment. It  soon  appeared  that  High  Churchmanship  was 
not  an  easy  introduction  to  Romanism,  but  its  most 
formidable  opponent,  and  that  the  strong  popular  pre- 
judices against  the  old  tyranny  of  Rome  were  not  to 
be  easily  overcome. 

Meantime  the  character  of  the  party  has  changed ; 
the  genial  Gallicanism  of  the  "  old  Catholic  families  "  has 
been  replaced  or  overlaid  with  a  fanatical  aggressive 
Ultramontanism.  The  new  dogma  of  the  Immaculate 
Conception,  accepted  by  the  Vatican  Council  in  1854,  and 
of  the  Papal  Infallibility,  declared  in  1870,  have  raised 
new  barriers  to  the  acceptance  of  modern  Romanism  by 
educated  churchmen. 

The  controversy  between  the  English  Church  and  the 
Papacy  has  assumed  a  new  phase.  The  Roman  contro- 
versialists recognise  that  the  strong  point  of  the  Church 
is  its  actual  unbroken  descent,  through  all  the  oscilla- 
tions of  the  Reformation  period,  from  the  ancient  Church, 
and  they  are  devoting  their  best  energies  to  prove  that 
the  descent  failed  on  the  accession  of  Parker  to  the  See 
of  Canterbury  (see  p.  168),  and  so  to  excuse  the  intra- 


THE  MODERN  PERIOD 


217 


sion  of  a  schismatical  hierarchy  as  a  replantation  of 
a  true  succession  in  this  country.  That  "the  Italian 
Mission  "  has  at  least  no  claim  to  be  the  descendant  and 
representative  of  the  old  unreformed  English  Church 

is  made  plain  by  the  following  facts. 

1.  The  intrusive  hierarchy  is  not  descended  from  the 
bishops  and  clergy  of  the  old  Church.  The  bishops 
and  priests  who,  on  the  death  of  Queen  Mary,  refused 
to  conform  to  the  reformed  order  made  no  attempt  to  keep 
up  a  succession  ;  they  died  out  and  left  no  successors. 

2.  The  ancient  Church  of  England  was  not  governed  by 
Roman  canon  law  ("What  have  I  to  do  with  a  Roman 
canon  ?  "  asked  Henry  I.,  see  p.  82),  but  by  the  canons 
made  by  its  own  English  synods.  The  Papal  sect  is 
governed  by  Roman  canon  law,  so  far  as  that  is  not 
suspended  by  the  absolute  authority  of  the  Pope. 

3.  The  ancient  Church  of  England  had  its  own 
liturgy,  which  descended  from  the  Ephesian  family  of 
the  four  great  ancient  liturgies ;  the  Papal  sect  uses  the 
modern  Roman  liturgy. 

4.  The  doctrine  which  the  Papal  sect  teaches  is  not 
that  of  the  unreformed  Church  of  England,  but  that 
doctrine  as  modified  by  the  Council  of  Trent  plus  the 
dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception,  plus  the  Papal 
Infallibility,  and  other  modern  accretions. 

5.  The  raison  d'etre  of  the  Papal  sect  in  England  is 
the  assertion  of  the  Papal  supremacy ;  but  the  supremacy 
which  it  asserts  is  the  modern  theory  that  the  Pope  is 
by  divine  right  the  absolute  ruler  of  the  Church,  and 
the  infallible  teacher  of  divine  truth ;  which  is  a  totally 
different  thing  from  the  patriarchal  authority,  carefully 
defined  and  limited,  which  the  Church  of  England  ad- 
mitted at  the  Conquest,  and,  finding  it  abused,  burden- 
some, and  mischievous,  threw  off  at  the  Reformation. 


2i8    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


The  most  remarkable  fact  in  the  modern  historjr  of 
the  Church  of  England  is  its  rapid  extension  over  the 
world,  and  its  organisation  into  what  is  virtually  a  new 
patriarchate.  When  the  American  plantations  declared 
their  independence  in  1776,  there  were  numerous  con- 
gregations of  the  Church  of  England  there,  but  they 
were  all  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop  of  London. 
Laud  had  proposed  in  1638  to  send  a  bishop  to  New 
England,  and  Clarendon  obtained  the  sanction  of  Charles 
II.  to  the  establishment  of  a  bishopric  for  Virginia;  and 
Archbishop  Tenison  left  a  bequest  for  providing  an 
American  episcopate,  but  Walpole  prevented  its  taking 
effect.  In  1784,  with  the  advice  and  assent  of  the 
English  ecclesiastical  authorities,  the  political  and  legal 
difficulties  of  the  case  were  evaded  by  the  consecration 
of  Bishop  Seabury  at  the  hands  of  the  bishops  of  the 
disestablished  Scottish  Church.  Three  years  afterwards 
the  legal  difficulties  were  overcome,  and  the  English 
Church  consecrated  bishops  for  several  of  the  United 
States.  In  1793  Canada  was  supplied  with  a  bishop  of 
its  own,  and  in  1813  a  bishop  was  consecrated  for  our 
Indian  dominions. 

But  the  great  extension  of  the  Anglican  communion 
is  the  work  of  more  recent  times.  The  wonderful 
growth  of  our  population  led  to  the  foundation  of 
colonies  in  North  America,  New  Zealand,  Australia,  and 
South  Africa,  which  developed  with  great  rapidity.  The 
Religious  Societies  helped  the  early  colonists  to  build 
churches  and  schools,  and  provided  them  with  clergymen, 
and  at  length  completed  their  ecclesiastical  organisation 
by  the  appointment  of  Colonial  Bishops.  The  Eng- 
lish Bench  of  Bishops  made  an  appeal  in  1841  to  the 
nation  for  funds  to  provide  bishops  immediately  for  New 
Zealand,  the  British  possessions  in  the  Mediterranean, 


THE  MODERN  PERIOD 


219 


New  Brunswick,  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Van  Diemen's 
Land,  and  Ceylon ;  they  proposed  afterwards  to  make 
similar  provision  for  Sierra  Leone,  British  Guiana,  South 
Australia,  Port  Philip,  Western  Australia,  Northern  India 
and  Southern  India.  Within  sixteen  years  these  Sees 
v/ere  founded  and  endowed  by  voluntary  contributions ; 
the  work  thus  begun  has  been  steadily  continued,  until 
the  whole  number  of  colonial  and  missionary  bishoprics 
amounts  to  seventy-seven.  The  Sees  of  the  Church  of 
the  United  Stales  meantime  have  grown  to  the  number 
of  seventy-one. 

In  1867  the  foundation  was  laid  of  the  organisation 
of  all  the  Churches  of  the  Anglican  communion.  The 
first  formal  expression  of  a  desire  for  it  came  from  the 
Provincial  Synod  of  Canada,  and  the  bishops  of  the 
United  States  intimated  that  they  would  gladly  take  part 
in  a  general  conference  of  Anglican  bishops.  There 
actually  assembled  at  Lambeth  in  that  year  78  out  of  a 
total  of  144,  viz.,  18  English,  9  Irish,  7  Scottish,  23  from 
British  Colonies,  and  21  from  the  United  States.  The 
conference  lamented  "  the  divided  condition  of  the  flock 
of  Christ  throughout  the  world,"  and  expressed  "its 
solemn  conviction  that  unity  will  be  most  effectually  pro- 
moted by  maintaining  the  faith  in  its  purity  and  integrity 
as  taught  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  held  by  the  primitive 
Church,  summed  up  in  the  true  Creeds,  and  affirmed 
by  the  undisputed  general  Councils."  The  conference 
passed  a  series  of  resolutions  pointing  in  the  direction 
of  the  complete  organisation  of  the  Church  of  England 
with  the  Churches  of  the  Colonies  and  those  of  the 
United  States  into  what  would  be  a  new  patriarchate 
having  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  as  the  centre  of 
its  organisation.  The  prospect  is  perhaps  a  little  vague, 
but  it  is  a  very  grand  one.    It  is  all  but  certain  that  the 


220    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


Colonies  will  grow  into  great  nations ;  the  United  States 
will  also  continue  to  grow;  and  the  English-speaking 
peoples  will  exercise  a  great  influence  in  the  world  of 
the  future.  Even  if  the  Colonies,  or  some  of  them,  should 
assert  their  political  independence,  after  the  example  of 
the  United  States,  still  this  ecclesiastical  organisation  will 
unite  them  with  the  rest  of  the  Anglican  communion 
for  religious  purposes,  and  will  greatly  help  to  bind  all 
together  in  international  unity.  England  is  not  only 
the  pivot  of  this  external  machinery,  it  is  the  heart  and 
brain  of  this  spiritual  organisation ;  it  behoves  English 
churchmen  to  see  that  their  soundness  in  the  faith  and 
holiness  of  character  and  spiritual  energy  are  such  as 
to  fit  them  for  the  part  which  they  are  called  upon  to 
take.  A  glance  back  at  the  history  of  the  Church  will 
show  how  in  ancient  times,  through  the  political  and 
material  depression  of  the  East  and  the  political  and 
material  growth  of  Europe,  the  centre  of  gravity  of 
Christendom  moved  from  the  Greek  to  the  Latin  civi- 
lisation, from  Constantinople  to  Rome ;  the  action  of 
the  same  causes,  the  political  and  material  depression 
of  the  European  nations  and  the  vigorous  growth  of  the 
English-speaking  nationalities,  may  cause  a  like  transfer 
of  the  religious  centre  from  the  Latin  to  the  Teutonic 
civilisation,  from  Rome  to  Canterbury.  It  has  long 
since  been  pointed  out  (by  Montalembert)  that  the 
English  Church,  holding  fast  to  the  faith  and  constitu- 
tion of  the  primitive  Church,  and  gladly  embracing  the 
results  of  the  growth  and  development  of  the  race, 
affords  a  centre  round  which  divided  Christendom  might 
one  day  rally.  The  Churches  of  the  East  are  already 
beginning  to  regard  us  Avith  interest  and  sympathy ;  the 
manhood  of  the  Roman  Churches  is  aUenated  and 
ripening  for  another  Reformation.    There  is  said  to  be 


THE  MODERN  PERIOD  221 

a  strong  and  growing  feeling  in  the  Scotch  Kirk  in  the 
direction  of  the  primitive  standards  of  organisation  and 
creed. 

Another  most  remarkable  phenomenon  of  the  religious 
condition  of  England  is  the  manifold  divisions  of  our 
English  Christianity,  the  wonderful  rapidity  with  which 
it  is  subdividing.  Down  to  the  beginning  of  this  cen- 
tury the  principal  Dissenting  bodies  were  the  Presby- 
terians, Independents,  Romanists,  Baptists,  Wesleyans, 
Friends.  The  census  of  1851  enumerated  75  different 
denominations.  The  Registrar  General's  return  of 
places  licensed  for  divine  worship  gave  in  1871  177 
names  of  denominations;  in  1886  this  had  increased  to 
213;  in  1894  it  was  273.  This  constant  subdivision 
does  not  affect  the  whole  population;  about  75  per 
cent,  of  the  population  are  reckoned  as  more  or  less 
Church  people ;  the  gross  number  of  Dissenters,  it  is 
probable,  does  not  increase  in  proportion  to  the  popu- 
lation; but  it  is  this  minority  of  the  population  which 
is  subject  to  the  wonderful  disintegration  shown  in  the 
official  returns.  At  the  same  time,  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  there  is  a  strong  tendency  among  Dissenters 
to  forsake  the  old  standards  of  orthodoxy.  The  modern 
school  of  criticism  has  sapped  the  foundations  on  which 
they  rested.  It  is  said  that  there  is  a  strong  leaven  of 
Socinianism  among  the  Independents,  and  the  Wesleyan 
authorities  recently  decided  that  baptism  was  not  neces- 
sary for  "  membership  "  of  their  body. 

Though  the  dissent  of  the  country  includes  only  a 
minority  of  the  people,  it  is  earnest,  well  organised,  and 
exercises  a  political  power  and  social  influence  which 
is  enough  to  paralyse  the  religious  action  of  the  country 
as  a  whole.  The  Government  can  give  no  support  or 
encouragement,  or  even  countenance,  to  religion;  in 


222    HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 


setting  up  a  system  of  National  Education  the  whole 
country  would  desire  it  to  be  religious,  but  the  Govern- 
ment is  obliged  to  leave  religion  to  take  its  chance,  be- 
cause it  considers  itself  bound  to  neutrality  among  the 
different  religious  bodies. 

The  consular  chaplains,  who  used  to  witness  for  the 
religion  of  the  English  wherever  the  consular  flag 
witnessed  to  the  political  and  commercial  power  of 
England,  are  withdrawn  as  inconsistent  with  the  attitude 
of  neutrahty  which  the  Government  assumes  amidst  the 
contending  sects. 

Foreign  Churches  are  frightened  from  the  path  of 
reform  by  the  spectacle  of  the  confusion  which  has 
resulted  here.  Intelligent  heathens  scornfully  bid  our 
missionaries  to  settle  their  religion  among  themselves 
before  they  offer  it  to  the  accejjtance  of  other  people. 

All  our  Colonies  have  been  founded  in  the  modern 
period,  and  the  people  who  founded  them  carried  with 
them  these  unhappy  religious  divisions.  The  result  is 
a  great  weakening  of  the  power  of  Christianity  wherever 
the  English  form  of  it  prevails.  So  far  as  human  judg- 
ment and  foresight  can  venture  to  pronounce  on  such 
a  question,  the  most  important  gain  to  the  cause  of 
Christ  and  His  Church  in  the  immediate  future  would 
be  the  reunion  of  English  Christianity  round  the  standard 
of  the  Historic  Church. 


INDEX 


Advertisements  of  Elizabeth,  172. 
Agilbert,  Bishop  of  West  Saxons,  50. 
Aidan  sent  from  lona  to  Northum- 

bria,  40 ;  founds  Lindisfarne,  40  ; 

converts    Northumbria,    41  ;  bis 

character,  41. 
Aldhelm,  Bishop  of  Sherborne,  57. 
Alfred  reconquers  the  kingdom,  61  ; 

encourages  religion  and  learning, 

62. 

Anglo-Saxon  invasion  of  Britain,  16 ; 

kingdoms,  18. 
Annates,  Act  against,  143. 
Anselm,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 

78. 

Appeals,  Act  for  restraining,  144. 

"Appropriate"  parishes,  no. 

Architecture,  British,  40  ;  Saxon,  57, 
64 ;  Norman,  77,  85  ;  Early  Eng- 
lish, 109  :  fourteenth  century,  120 ; 
fifteenth  century,  124. 

Aries,  Council  of,  attended  by 
British  bishops,  10. 

Art,  Saxon,  64. 

Articles  of  Religion,  the  Ten  Articles, 
157  ;  Six  Articles,  157  ;  Forty-two 
Articles,  160 ;  Forty-nine  Articles, 
166. 

Assembly  of  Divines,  186. 
Augustine,  his  mission  to  England, 

24  :  interview  with  Ethelbert,  25  ; 

converts  Kent,  26  ;  interview  with 

British  bishops,  27. 

Bancroft,  Archbishop,  178. 
Bangorian  controversy,  207. 
Barlow,  Bishop,  169. 


Becket,  Thomas,  88  ;  cliancellor,  89 ; 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  92  ; 
quarrel  with  the  king,  93  ;  martyr- 
dom, 96. 

Bede,  57. 

Benedict  Biscop,  50 ;  founds  Wear- 
mouth  and  Jarrow,  57. 

Bertha  of  Kent,  21. 

Bible,  translations  of,  Wiclif's,  119; 
Tyndale's,  Coverdale's,  Matthews', 
Cranmer's  great  Bible.  156. 

Birinus  converts  the  West  Saxons,  43. 

Bishoprics,  Anglo-Saxon,  56 ;  new, 
temp.  Henry  VIII.,  154. 

Bishops,  British,  at  Aries,  10 ;  at  Sar- 

Boniface,  the  Apostle  of  Germany,  57. 
Bradford  on-Avon,  Saxon  Church  at, 
57,  63- 

Breviary  expurgated,  156. 

Britain,  ancient   inhabitants  of,   2 ; 

coinage  of,  2  ;  religion  of,  3. 
Britannia,  a  province  of  the  Roman 

empire,  3  ;  planting  of  the  Church 

in,  9 ;  abandoned  by  the  Roman 

empire,  12. 
British  Church,  its  peculiarities,  14  ; 

Bran,  the  legend  of,  6. 

C/EDWALLA  conquers  Northumbria, 

35  ;  slain  at  Hevenfelt,  39. 
Canute,  64. 

Cartwright,  founder  of  Presbyterian- 
Catholic  emancipation,  212. 
Cedd  converts  the  East  Saxons,  44. ' 


224 


INDEX 


Chadd,  Bishop  of  Northumbria,  of 

Mercia,  57. 
Chantry  chapels,  129 ;  suppression  of, 

160. 

Charles  I.,  his  policy,  180,  188. 

Church  and  State,  definition  of  their 
relations  in  the  Act  for  restraining 
appeals,  144 ;  relations  between,  in 
Saxon  times,  7  ;  altered  by  William 
I.,  76 ;  attempted  alteration  by 
Henry  II.,  91  ;  altered  by  Henry 
VIII.,  146. 

Clarendon,  Constitutions  of,  92. 

Claudius,  his  conquest  of  Britain,  3. 

Colman  of  Lindisfarne,  50. 

Colonial  churches,  218. 

Communion  in  one  kind,  134. 

Continuity  of  the  Church  through  the 
Reformation,  146,  155,  168. 

Conventicle  Act,  193. 

Convocation,  149. 

Councils  at  Aries,  Nicsea,  Sardica, 
Ariminum,  11;  Verulamium,  14; 
Whitby,  50  ;  Hertford,  52  ;  Heath- 
field,  53;  Cealchythe,  58;  Cloves- 
hoe,  58  ;  Winchester,  73  ;  London, 
77  ;  Pisa,  Constance,  Basle,  122  ; 
Vatican,  216. 

Crannier,  Archbishop,  142. 

Cromwell,  1S8. 

Curabria,kingdomof,i9;  conquered, 20. 


Damnonia,  kingdom  of,  19 ;  con- 
quered, 20. 

Danes,  their  invasions,  60  ;  conquests, 
61,  64. 

Deistical  writers,  207. 

Deusdedit,  Bishop  of  Kent,  29,  51. 

Dioceses,  Anglo-Sa,xon,  56. 

Directory  of  public  worship,  187. 

Dispensing  power,  195. 

Dissent,  173,  176,  189,  192,  204,  205, 

Divorce  of  Henry  VIII.,  139,  140. 
Doncaster,  church  built  at,  34. 
Druids,  the,  3. 

Dunstan,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
63,  65. 


Eadcar,  King  of  England,  62. 

Eanfleda,  Queen  of  Northumbria,  49. 

East  Anglia,  kingdom  of,  founded, 
18  ;  converted,  44. 

Ecclesiastical  courts,  origin  of,  76. 

Edward  the  Confessor,  64,  66  ;  his 
character,  69  ;  introduces  foreigners 
into  English  Sees,  69. 

Edward  I.,  his  resistance  to  Papal 
claims,  114;  assertion  of  rights  of 
the  crown  over  the  clergy,  114. 

Edward  VI.,  First  Prayer  Book  of, 
159;  Second  Prayer  Book  of,  160. 

Edwin,  King  of  Northumbria,  31 ; 
his  conversion,  32  ;  baptism  at  York, 
32  ;  death,  35. 

Egbert,  King  of  Wessex,  unites  the 
Heptarchic  kingdoms,  58. 

Egfrid,  Archbishop  of  York,  57. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  ecclesiastical  policy 
of,  164  ;  excommunicated,  170. 

Essex,  kingdom  of,  founded,  18  ;  con- 
verted, 43. 

Ethelbert,  King  of  Kent,  21 ;  inter- 
view with  Augustine,  25  ;  conver- 

Ethelburga,  Queen  of  Northumbria, 

31.  36- 
Evangelical  school,  209. 

Felix,  first  bishop  of  the  East  Angles, 
44. 

Five  Mile  Act,  193. 

Foreign  reformers,  influence  of,  159. 

Free  chapels,  127. 

Friars,  orders  of,  founded,  111  ;  work 
of,  127;  suppressed,  152. 

G.\UL,  the  planting  of  the  Church 
in,  9. 

Germanus  of  Auxerre  visits  Britain, 
14. 

Glastonbury,  6  ;  legend,  5. 
Gregory  the  Great,  23  ;  sends  a  mis- 
sion to  England,  24. 
Grindal,  -Archbishop,  173. 
Grosseteste,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  105. 
Guilds,  129;  suppression  of,  160- 


INDEX 


225 


Hampton  Court  Conference,  177. 
"  Head  of  the  Church,"  148,  165,  166. 
Henry   II.,   88  ;    his   quarrel  with 

Becket,  92. 
Henry  III.,  character,  104  ;  Church 

abuses  in  his  reign,  105,  106 ;  war 

with  the  barons,  107. 
Heretics,  statute  against,  120. 
High  Church  school  of  thought,  155, 

164,  180,  213. 
Hilda,  Abbess  of  Whitby,  48,  50. 
Honoritis,  Bishop  of  Kent,  29. 
Hooker,  his  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity," 

175- 

"  Immaculate  Conception,"  the,  133, 
216. 

Independents,  origin  of,  176, 
Indulgence,  Declaration  of,  193,  197. ' 
Indulgences,  136. 

"  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man, ' 
157- 

Investiture,  the  quarrel  of,  80,  83. 
lona,  foundation  of,  38  ;  sends  mission 

to  Northumbria,  39. 
Italians  hold  English  benefices,  106. 

Jacob  the  Deacon,  39,  50. 
James  I.,  177. 

James  II.,  his  ecclesiastical  policy, 
195. 

Jewish  disabilities  repealed,  212. 

John,  King,  resists  Pope  Innocent  III., 
100  ;  is  excommunicated,  ici  ;  sub- 
mits to  the  Pope,  loi  ;  grams  Magna 
Charta,  103  ;  death,  J04. 

Julius  CsEsar,  his  expeditions  to  i?ri- 

Justus,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  28. 


Kent,  kingdom  of,  founded,  18 ;  con- 
verted, 26. 

Lambeth  Conference,  219. 
Lanfranc,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 

74.  77- 

S.  T. 


Loud,  Archbishop,  181,  183. 

aurentius,  Bishop  of  Canterbury,  29. 
Lichfield  an  archbishopric,  58. 
Lincoln,  British  bishop  at,  10  ;  Sa.\on 

church  built  at,  34. 
Litany  revised,  156. 
Lollards,  117. 

London,  British  bishop  at,  10;  Saxon 
church  built  there,  28. 

Long  Parliament,  182. 
I    Low  Church  Party,  202. 
I   Lucius,  King  of  the  Britains,  6. 

Lupus  of  Troyes  visits  Britain,  14. 

Lyons,  the  Church  planted  there,  8. 


Mary,  Queen,  ecclesiastical  policy  of, 
161  ;  persecution  under,  162. 

Mary  Stuart,  Queen,  171. 

Mass  altered  into  Communion,  156. 

Mellitus,  Bishop  of  London,  29 ;  of 
Canterbury,  29. 

Mercia,  kingdom  of,  founded,  19 ; 
converted,  43. 

Millenary  Petition,  177. 

Monasteries  in  Kent,  30 ;  in  Northum- 
bria, 42,  48,  57. 

Monastic  Institution,  the,  87,  126. 

Monlfort  Simon  de,  107. 

Mortmain,  statute  of,  "116. 

"  Necessakv  Doctrine  of  a  Christian 

Man,"  158. 
New  Learning,  the,  137. 
Nonconformists,  172;  measuresagainst, 

192. 

I    Nonjurors,  200. 

Northumbria,  kingdom  of,  founded,  18; 
Paulinus's  mission  to,  31;  converted 
by  Aidan.  40. 


Occasional   Conformity  Act,  205  ; 

repeal  of,  206. 
Offa,  King  of  Mercia,  58. 
Oswald,  King  of  Northumbria,  38  ; 

sends  foi  missionaries  to  lona,  39 

his  death,  42. 
Oswy,  King  of  Northumbria,  42,  52. 

P 


226 


INDEX 


Papal  abuses,  113  ;  complaints  of,  115, 
ti6. 

"  Papal  Aggression,"  the,  215,  217. 
Papal  infallibility,  216. 
Papal  supremacy,  68,  72 ;  rejected, 
144. 

Papists,  their  action,  temp.  Eliza- 
beth, 170 ;  James,  179 ;  modern, 
214. 

Parishes  organised,  50 ;  country,  50  ; 

town,  128. 
Parker,  Archbishop  of  Canterburj-, 

168. 

Parliament,  its  resistance  to  Papal 

claims,  114. 
Paulinus,  his  mission  to  Northumbria, 

31,  32  ;  his  missionary  work,  33  ; 

description  of,  35  ;  return  to  Kent, 

36  ;  Bishop  of  Rochester,  36. 
Pelagius,  his  heresy  introduced  into 

Britain,  ,3. 
Persecution  of  the  clergy,  183. 
Peter's  Pence,  Act  abolishing,  144. 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  154. 
Plate  and  ornaments  of  the  churches 

seized,  161. 
Posidonius,  Greek,  visitor  to  Britain,  2. 
Prayer  Book,  First,  of  Edward  VI  , 

159  ;  Second,  of  Edward  VI.,  160  ; 

of  Elizabeth,  166;  of  James,  178; 

of  the  Restoration,  191. 
Prayer  Book  suppressed,  187. 
Preaching  in  the  Middle  Ages,  131. 
Premunire,  Statute  of,  ii5. 
Printing,  resul  of,  138. 
Prophesy  ings,  174. 
Provisors,  Statute  of,  113. 
Prymers,  133,  156. 
Purgatory,  135. 
Puritans,  172-175. 

Pytheas,  Greek,  visitor  to  Britain,  i. 

Queen'  -Anne's  Bounty,  206. 

Rebellion,  the  great,  183. 
Redwald,  King  of  the  East  Angles, 

converted,  29. 
Reformation,  the,  causes  of,  137. 


Religious  instruction  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  130  ;  manuals  for  clergy,  130 ; 
j      for  people,  132. 

j   Restoration  of  mon.irchy  and  church, 

I      I  go- 
Revolution,  the,  199- 

j    Rochester,  church  built  there,  28. 
Romanus,  chaplain  of  Queen  Ean- 

j      fleda,  49- 

I  Rome,  its  history  in  the  fifth  and  sixth 
:      centuries,  23. 

1   Rome,  Church  of,  its  history  in  the 
fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  23  ;  in  the 
I      ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  66. 
Royal  supremacy,  148,  195. 


St.    Alban,    the    protomartyr  of 

Britain,  10. 
St.  Alban's  Abbey,  11. 
St.  Paul,  legendary'  connection  of,  » ith 

the  conversion  of  Britain,  6,  7. 
Saint  worship,  135. 
Savoy  Conference,  igi. 
Saxon  Church,  its  peculiarities,  65. 
Schism  Act,  205  ;  repeal  of,  207. 
Schoolmen,  iii. 

Sebert,  King  of  the  East  Sa.\ons,  con- 
verted, 29. 

Secessions  of  clergy  on  the  accession 
of  Mary,  162  ;  of  Elizabeth,  167. 

Sermons,  mediaeval,  131. 

Seven  bishops  sent  to  the  Tower, 
198. 

Severus  of  Treves  visits  Britain,  14. 

Sigebert,  King  of  the  East  Saxons, 
I      converted,  43. 
I   Socinian  writers,  208. 
,   "  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,"  186. 
I   South  Saxon  kingdom  founded,  18; 
I      converted,  44. 

Southwell,  church  built  at,  35. 

Stigand,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
70,  72  ;  deposed,  73. 

Submission  of  the  clergy,  146-149. 

Suppression  of  religious  houses,  151. 

Supremacy,  Papal.    See  "  Papal." 

Surrender  of  the  great  monasteries, 
152. 


INDEX 


227 


Test  Act,  194  ;  repealed,  212. 

Theodore,  Archbishop  of  Canterburj', 
52  ;  holds  Synod  at  Hertford,  52  ;  at 
Heathfield,  53  ;  subdivides  dioceses, 
54  ;  organises  parishes,  56. 

Thirteenth  century,  character  of,  io3. 

Toleration  Act,  204. 

Transubstantiation,  134. 

Uniformity,  Act  of,  191. 

V'ERULAM.St.Alban  martyred  there,  10. 
Vicarages  founded,  no. 
Virgin  Mary,  cultus  of,  133. 

Wales,  kingdoms  of,  19. 
Welsh  Church,  27,  37. 


Wesleyan  movement,  210. 

Wessex,  kingdom  of,  founded,  1 3 ; 
converted,  43. 

Whitby,  Synod  at,  50. 

Whitgift,  Archbishop,  175. 

Wiclif,  John,  his  opinions,  itS  ;  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible,  119. 

Wighard,  52. 

Wilfrid  of  York,  50 ;  converts  the 
South  Saxons,  35,  55  ;  his  appeals 
to  Rome,  55. 

William  I.,  his  ecclesiastical  policy,  74- 

William  III.,  100. 

William  Rufus,  his  invasion  of  the 
rights  of  the  Church,  80  ;  quarrel 
with  .\nselm,  80. 

Wini,  Bishop  of  the  West  Saxons,  51. 


THE  END 


Date  Due 


re  — 

I 


BW5020.C99 

History  of  the  Church  of  England. 


1  1012  00035  7535 


